Mike Teunissen couldn’t deliver another surprise in the Tour de l'Ain on Wednesday. In the first sage, the Team LottoNL-Jumbo youngster came up just short to maintain his race leader's jersey.

The winner of Tuesday’s prologue finished fourth in the bunch sprint, and saw Nacer Bouhanni jump into the race lead. The Frenchman was credited with ten bonus seconds with the victory, enough to bounce five seconds into the overall lead.

“We knew that it was going to be difficult," Sport Director Erik Dekker said. "It would have been great if we’d succeeded, but Mike finishing fourth in a bunch kick is still very good.”

Dekker secretly started to believe in a little help from the breakaway during the stage. "The attackers were caught only 300 meters from the finish line. It would have been nice if they had remained ahead and Bouhanni didn’t collect any seconds.”

Mike Teunissen

Teunissen admitted that Bouhanni was simply too fast for him in the sprint. “Timo Roosen and Twan Castelijns dropped me off in his wheel, but I just couldn’t hold it. When he accelerated, I was able to follow him for three pedal strokes, but after that, he was gone. Maybe there’s still some room for improvement regarding my sprint. I never really trained it.”

Teunissen looks back with pride on his day in yellow. “It was very nice to experience. Hopefully it will happen more often in the future. Prologues are a weapon for me; we know that now. "

Mixing in battle

Dekker expects a fierce battle to get into the breakaway on Thursday. “And we are going to get involved, because today the attack was almost rewarded. Moreover, it’s terribly hot over here, and that makes it a different race. Additionally, Bouhanni is the only real sprinter here, and thus there is only one team that will try to keep the break in check.”