Jonas Vingegaard had a mixed day in the 31km Criterium du Dauphiné time trial on Wednesday, missing out on a stage win and the leader's yellow jersey but finishing well ahead of most of his overall rivals.

The winner of the 2022 Tour de France finished 12 seconds ahead of stage winner Mikkel Bjarg (UAE Team Emirates) and will head into the mountain stages of the week-long race with the same 12-second margin.

Remi Cabagna (Soudal-Quick Step) was third, 27 seconds behind, and Fred Wright (Bahrain Victorious) was fourth, 34 seconds behind, 22 seconds slower than Vingegaard.

Vingegaard set the fastest time at the first intermediate checkpoint at 10.5 km and appeared to have the stage win in the bag, but stalled in the last third of the course as the excitement built and struggled as the line approached and the gradient reached 6%.

"I wanted to win the stage and get the yellow jersey, but Mikkel did a really good time trial today. I think I did a good time trial, but Mikkel's time trial was really great," Vingegaard said.

"I was planning to start hard, maybe a little too hard, but I think I did a good job.

"I saved a little bit in the middle and tried to go again in the last spurt, but when I tried to go, there was nothing there. ...... Maybe I should have gone a little easier at the start.

The loss gave Vinegard and his Jumbo-Visma team some comfort.

"There's no need to pull it tomorrow," he said of Thursday's 191-km stage from Colmorenche-sur-Saone to Salins-les-Bains in the Jura department in northeastern France, north of Geneva.

"Bjarg will take the jersey, but hopefully in the next few days.

Despite his stage loss, Vingegaard still managed to gain an important time gap on his rivals in the overall race.

Australia's Ben O'Connor (AG2R Citroen) was adept at minimizing losses. He finished third overall behind Vingegaard last year and finished 29 seconds behind Vingegaard on Wednesday, putting him in position to challenge for the podium again.

Adam Yates (UAE Team Emirates) cut his loss to 45 seconds, while Dani Martinez (Ineos Grenadiers) lost 55 seconds and Jai Hindley (Beulah Hansgrohe) 56 seconds.

The damage to the other riders was more severe, effectively ending their overall hopes for the Criterium du Dauphiné and serving as a warning for the rapidly approaching Tour de France.

David Gaudou (Groupama-FDJ) lost 2:10, Richard Calapaz (EF Education-EasyPost) 2:27, Mikel Landa (Bahrain-Victorias) 2:37, and Enric Mas (Movistar) 2:38. lost 2 minutes 27 seconds.

American Matteo Jorgenson finished 18th, more than a minute faster than Movistar's team leader, 1:25, despite crashing on stage 3.

Egan Bernal lost 2:25 for the overall in the Criterium du Dauphiné.

Stage 2 winner Julien Alaphilippe (Sourdal-Quick Step), who was close to the race leader before suffering an unfortunate puncture on stage 3, lost a minute and dropped to 8th overall, further distancing himself from the maillot jaune.

Bjarg and UAE Team Emirates will run Thursday's stage 5 as race leaders, with Wingegaard 12 seconds back, Wright 34 seconds back in third, and O'Connor 41 seconds back in fourth.