Going into the Criterium du Dauphiné, Arnaud Demare had made today's third stage his big objective and his FDJ team took control from the beginning to set up a bunch sprint. In the end, the sprinter got lost in the technical finale and never got the chance to sprint, leaving the Frenchman hugely disappointed.

Arnaud Demare is gearing up for the Tour de France and has decided to use the Criterium du Dauphiné to fine-tune his condition. In addition to working hard in the mountains, the Frenchman had plans to come away from the race with a stage win as all the big sprinters were absent.

Demare had picked out today's third stage as maybe his only opportunity in the race and his FDJ team assumed their position on the front of the peloton from the early stages, with Pierrick Fedrigo almost single-handedly reeling in the early break. When a 8-rider group escaped in the finale, Arthur Vichot and Yoann Offredo contributed to the pace-setting and going into the final kilometres, all was set for a big battle between the sprinters.

However, the FDJ train was positioned too far back in the group and things only got worse when Demare lost the wheel of his trusted lead-out men William Bonnet and Mickael Delage. While the two support riders were desperately looking back in search of their captain, Demare tried to do his sprint on his own but never got the chance to put down the hammer, ultimately crossing the line in 8th.

Afterwards, he did nothing to hide his disappointment.

"When we win, we win together," he said. "When we lose, we lose together, too. Nothing happened as planned, that's all.

"Yes, we caught the break too early and we were too far back in the sprint. We knew how the finale was, we knew everything. I have no disrespect for the riders that are here but they are not the best sprinters. We messed it up and it is far, far from the expected performance.

"I got lost and I never found my position again. We knew that the finale was tricky. In the last hundred meters, William and Mika (Delage) rallied around me but it was narrow and when they moved ahead, I was stuck behind. Afterwards, I thought there would be an opening but I never got clear and was unable to do the sprint. This is a big disappointment."