Late Sunday afternoon, the disappointment was very big at the top of the Col de l'Ospedale. Having been beaten by the AG2R-La Mondiale teamm Thibaut Pinot took second place in the Critérium International, despite his excellent time trial  in Porto-Vecchio (4th). The leader of the FDJ team faced and assumed his responsibilities.

Actually, most saw Pinot as the big favourite as he had made an impression in the time trial, beating for example Jean-Christophe Péraud, last year's winner, by 12 seconds.

The first part of the third stage followed the planned script, with a breakaway of five riders controlled by the Cannondale team of yellow jersey holder Ben King yellow jersey before Anthony Geslin came to lend a hand for FDJ. From the first ramps of the Ospedale, FDJ took control with Arnaud Courteille, Francis Mourey, Jérémy Roy, Steve Morabito and Pinot.

Roy took a rather strong turn before leaving it to Steve Morabito to set a high tempo that was too fast for King and many runners. Pinot's big mistake may have been to attack 7.5 kilometers from the summit. He was followed by only Vuillermoz (AG2R-La Mondiale), Edet (Cofidis), Arrendondo (Trek Factory) and Fedrigo (Brittany) before a group of twenty riders again gathered. Jean-Christophe Péraud countered and got a substantial advantage, 35 seconds with 4km to go.

Pinot again attacked when the slope allowed it, 1.8 km from the finish, with only Fedrigo being able to stay with him, but upon arrival, he lacked 10 seconds to register  his name in the history of the event.

"I'm disappointed but I met an AG2R-La Mondiale team than was stronger than us," he said. "Without doubt I attacked a little early but that's just how I am: I can hold myself back. We'll have to work on it, but I saw that riders like Felline and Jungels were still there, we had to move. We had to make the race harder. I was afraid that others would look at me and it would not be fast enough. After that, if I went too fast behind Péraud, putting myself in the red zone, I would have been countered by Vuillermoz (AG2R-La Mondiale). They would have attacked me. I was not on a great day like in Tirreno-Adriatico or yesterday in the time trial."

After the time trial, Pinot had been extremely confident.

"I'm pretty happy with my day," he said after the opening day. "I'm in the position that I was aiming at from the start. I'm behind TT specialists but ahead of the other climbers. This is what I wanted. I had the correct reference times from Jérémy Roy (18th) and Steve Morabito (12th) who have started before me. To place myself before the climbers, I knew I had to be in front of them.

"Tomorrow I'm going to defend the time that I took. It will not be up to me to make the race hard, I have to be defensive and it is quite new to me. Usually I have to take time in the mountains. Here, it's the opposite. Guys like Slagter, Frank, Péraud, Fedrigo are all able to win but it will be up to them to move. If they wait until the last kilometer to let me go, it may be difficult for them."

Pinot took third place in the final stage and second overall. Fortunately, the Tour of the Basque Country will soon allow him to erase that disappointment.