Thibaut Pinot had made the queen stage of the Bayern Rundfahrt his big goal of the five-day German race and his FDJ team dominated the stage to try to make things hard for their captain. In the end he had to settle for second and so missed out on a win on his birthday.

Right from the beginning of today's queen stage of Bayern Rundfahrt, Thibaut Pinot showed that he was up for the challenge. Very early in the stage he asked his strong FDJ team to tighten the screws and all day the French team was at the head of affairs, making things hard for their rivals.

In the end, it was up to Pinot to finish off the work on the final climb but unfortunatly the Frenchman looked to Sky to react when Mathias Frank launched what ended up being the winning move. Pinot fought hard in the final but in the end had to settle for second on his birthday.

"It was not a step climb, sports director Yvon Madiot said. "On paper it was not hard enough and so Thibaut asked his teammates to make the race hard to avoid that the situation got out of control in the finale.

"At the bottom of the first climb  we took the race in hand and at the top there were only 40 riders left, 7 of my team were there. We continued to lead the race until the final climb.

"The pace was really fast and the selection was made naturally. A dozen riders were in the first group when Frank attacked with 3km to go. Kiryenka and Thomas were there for Team Sky and Thibaut thought one of them would make the effort but they couldn't

"Thibaut went a little later. He came back strong on Frank but it was too late. It is unfortunate and a bit frustrating but at the same time, it is a great satisfaction to lead this team. The guys really work well and have coped well with their training in the Pyrenees. And then Thibaut can still do great things in two days time."