Jonas Vingegaard endured a day of mixed emotions during the 31km Critérium du Dauphiné time trial on Wednesday, missing out on the stage victory and race leader's yellow jersey but gaining significant time on most of his overall rivals.
The 2022 Tour de France winner finished 12 seconds down on stage winner Mikkel Bjerg (UAE Team Emirates) and will head into the mountain stages of the weeklong race with the same 12-second deficit.
Rémi Cavagna (Soudal-QuickStep) was third on the stage at 27 seconds, while Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious) was fourth at 34 seconds, just 22 seconds slower than Vingegaard.
Vingegaard looked set to win the stage when he set the fastest time at the first intermediate checkpoint after 10.5km, but then he faded in the rising final third of the course and struggled as the line approached and the gradient touched 6%.
"I hoped to win the stage and take the yellow jersey but Mikkel did a really good time trial today. I think I also did a good time trial but it was really impressive by Mikkel," Vingegaard said, revealing how he miss-timed his effort.
"It was the plan to go off hard, but maybe I went a bit too hard," he admitted.
"I tried to save a bit in the middle, then go again for the last part, but when I had to go, there was nothing to go with… Maybe I should have been going a little bit easier in the start, then I'd have more in the end maybe."
Defeat did offer some consolation for Vinegaard and his Jumbo-Visma team.
"We don't have to pull tomorrow," he said of Thursday's 191 km stage from Cormoranche-sur-Saône to Salins-les-Bains in the northeastern Jura department of France, north of Geneva.
"[Bjerg] will take the jersey but hopefully I can take it in the next few days."
Despite the loss on the stage, Vingegaard gained important chunks of time on all his general classification rivals.
Australian Ben O'Connor (AG2R Citroën) was the best at limiting his losses. He finished third overall last year behind Vingegaard and set himself up for another podium, finishing just 29 seconds down on Vingegaard on Wednesday.
Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) limited his losses to 45 seconds, while Dani Martínez (Ineos Grenadiers) conceded 55 seconds and Jai Hindley (Bora-Hansgrohe) lost 56 seconds.
The damage was much more considerable for the other riders, virtually ending their overall hopes for the Critérium du Dauphiné and serving as a warning for the rapidly approaching Tour de France.
David Gaudu (Groupama-FDJ) lost 2:10, Richard Carapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) 2:27, Mikel Landa (Bahrain Victorious) 2:37 and Enric Mas (Movistar) 2:38.
The USA's Matteo Jorgenson finished 18th at 1:25, more than a minute quicker than his Movistar team leader despite crashing during stage 3.
Egan Bernal is not targeting the overall classification of the Critérium du Dauphiné and lost 2:25.
Stage 2 winner Julian Alaphilippe (Soudal-QuickStep), who was close to taking the race lead before an untimely puncture on stage 3, lost 1:00 and slipped to eighth overall, falling further away from the maillot jaune.
Bjerg and UAE Team Emirates will ride Thursday's fifth stage as race leaders, with Vingegaard at 12 seconds, Wright third at 34 seconds and O'Connor fourth at 41 seconds.
