Even the presence of Tony Martin was not enough for Etixx-QuickStep who could only manage fourth in the Criterium du Dauphiné team time trial.

We screwed up royally. That, in a nutshell, is what happened at the team time trial today at the Dauphine. We started out too fast in the first three kilometers and then had nothing left. For me personally it wasn’t all that bad. But it caused us to lose two guys fairly early," he wrote on his website.

"After five kilometers we had to gather ourselves together again. But by then it was too late. Shortly before the finish another one had to fall back and we rode to the end with five. In the end we were 18 seconds down and in fourth place.

"Well, a little less at the beginning is sometimes a little more later. If we had budgeted our strength better in the first kilometers, we might possibly have gone for the win. And that, even though we aren’t here at all with a team which is put together for a team time trial.

"For me personally the form test was more important than the results. I wanted to know how my time trialing was in comparison to Romandie. Of course, with the team it is different than when you ride alone but still I have my eye fixed firmly on the prologue at the Tour and want to gather more knowledge.

"Apart from that, it is pretty hot here. For me that is the first hot race of the year. My body must still get used to it. But today it started going better."