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Whenever a breakaway defies the odds to stay clear of the peloton on a day that's, on paper, destined for a sprint, questions are going to be asked and fingers are going to be raised. On stage 3 of the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Critérium du Dauphiné, the FDJ and 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Katusha-Alpecinও teams were left questioning the commitment and tactics of the other.

A six-man breakaway formed in the opening couple of kilometres of the 184km stage but, with a maximum gap o♛f six minutes 30 seconds, it looked like the sprinters' teams had things under control. Indeed, there was little panic ꦍas the break hit the duo of minor climbs at 50km to go with a lead of three minutes.

But by the time they were back on t꧅he flat, commitment behind waned, while the leading sextet were all-in, no one shirking a turn. They reached the flamme rouge with a lead of 35 se🐷conds and it was game over.

"If all teams continued working like they did until the last 20km, we would have probably caught the break. But then something stopped," Jose Azevedo, 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Katusha-Alpecin's DS, told Cyclingnews and L'Equipe in Tullins.

Katusha felt they were the only team riding in the closing stages, while FDJ felt Katusha h💮adn't done enough earlier in the day.

"Katusha waited for a long time before coming to the front. Dimension Data as well," FDJ's 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Arnaud Démare, winner of Monday's stage 2, told L'Equipe. "Us, we put a man on the front very quickly. Cofidis did so too🙈."

Démare did admit that, with a gap of over six minutes, "we should have ridden a bit harder", but he felt strongly th𒊎at Katusha had avoided contributing in the first three quarters of the stage in order to save their m🅘atches to launch Kristoff in the sprint.

"Some teams have come he🔴re especially for sprints. I'm thinking of Katusha, where everything is for Kristoff. They have eight riders for the sprint," he said pointedly.

"Some want to work as little as possible in order to have more r𒐪iders to lead out the sprint. On Sunday, you can u🧔nderstand the break making it, given the parcours. Today, it's not normal."

Katusha's Azevedo refuted Démare's grievances, arguing that his riders had started contributing💯 after the pair of fourth-cat climbs in the first half of the stage, and that FDJ disappeared when it really mattered.

"We started riding with [Tiago] Machado when the others started riding 🦩– I think at kilometre 60. They started before us, then we had a downhill 10km and there I said, 'Now try to move up and ride with them'.

"But in the end we had four riders pulling in the last 15km.꧅ Everybody was riding with one rider, so we expected the other teams to ride a bit more. We put four riders on the front, but it's surprising that some teams stropped pullin𒊎g.

"Each team does its own strategy, but we also need to consider that the six riders were riding faster than expected. I don'𒐪t want to blame the others – each team has its strategy. I think we did our job, we showed we had our intentions and tried to🉐 win the stage with Alex and that's, in the end it was not possible."

While 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Bryan Coquard's Direct Energie had a sick note as they had a man in the break, the Cofidis team voiced the rather less reasonable excuse that they don't have any expectations here, with 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Nacer Bouhanni only recently back from injury.

"We could have put another rider on the front, but at the moment with Nacer we're not sure of being able to compete, for several reasons - he's coming back, he's missing the i🗹njured Christophe La✅porte, and yesterday Démare won by a bike length," said DS Didier Rous. 

"It's up to the 🍰other teams to take their responsibilities an🥀d assume their status. We today didn't have any status. We did the work we needed to do with the means we had."

In the🐼 end, FDJ led out a somewhat futile buncꦗh sprint for seventh place.

"There's a bit of regret, because I won the sprint from the peloton," said 𒊎Démare. "🍬It wasn't for the win, but that's the game."