Ten Kate Honda's Jonathan Rea has said he suffered from arm pump at the end of World Superbike race two at Magny-Cours today which put paid to his challenge for the win.

The young Irishman battled with Max Biaggi and Noriyuki Haga in the second leg today but faded towards the end which prevented him from carrying on at the front runners' pace.

"All weekend we’ve had a good pace but it just seems that, come the first race, we couldn’t put it together. I’m really sorry for the team because I take a lot of the blame for that," said Rea.

"It put me out of my rhythm and then I got a bit of arm pump towards the end of race two. I was running with the guys at the front until about five laps from the end because the package we had here was as strong as at Imola last week. We’ll regroup back at the workshop and come back strong for Portimao."