Omega Pharma team manager Partick Lefevere shrugged in disappointment as his squad failed to deliver Mark Cavendish to the line in time to challenge for the sprint.

However he did not seem to fazed this early in the year to lose to Marcel Kittel.

"This is the first sprint that these guys have done together and I think they got a little bit excited in the finale because they were already leading the peloton with 11km to go," Lefevere told Cyclingnews.

"In the meeting before the stage, I think I understood that we'd pull as late as possible. We maybe got too nervous and excited and did too much too early."

"There was a little confusion after the turn but Tony [Martin] went to pull. However Sagan was already in front of Mark [Cavendish], I think on Renshaw's wheel and that affected things. But we didn’t see the sprint from the helicopter on television. That's the only way you can really understand what happened."

The squad was debriefed after the defeat and Lefevere was quick to point the defeat in the way of human error rather than that of natural causes like the wind.

"It was windy for the others too," he said. 'We'll debrief and talk to the riders but it's not a big deal. They need some more time to work on getting things right. But we know we've got a good lead out and a good sprinter in Mark. Our turn will come."