Netcompany Ineos' decision to wait for Oscar Onley during the stage 3 team time trial of the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes may have cost the team a chance at taking the race lead and the stage victory.
The British team came into the race with Onley and Kévin Vauquelin as their GC leaders, and both gained 12 seconds on most of the GC contenders during the opening stage. They were poised to move either rider into the maillot jaune of race leader, but with 9km to go, Onley dropped his chain and struggled to get it back on.
Vauquelin, together with Josh Tarling, Dorian Godon and Carlos Rodriguez, had to sit up and wait while Onley, and when they did, their advantage over Visma-Lease a Bike, which had been three seconds at the first time check and six at the second, turned into a nine-second deficit at the finish line.
"It's certainly not the best way to lose a good amount of time," Vauquelin said to Eurosport. "So, I think it's still a positive outcome, even without the win."
Vauquelin and Onley finished together after being dropped off by Rodriguez, and held onto second place overall. However, EF Education-EasyPost limited their losses to Netcompany Ineos to 20 seconds and 29 seconds to Visma-Lease a Bike to keep Alex Baudin in the yellow jersey.
That left Vauquelin and Onley in second and third overall at 12 seconds. Was the decision to wait for Onley the wrong play?
"It's a bit complicated; it's a very delicate situation because we're travelling at 80 km/h," Vauquelin said. "If you wait for someone - whether they're considered strong or not - you lose a huge amount of time. As some commentators have pointed out, you might lose 15 or 20 seconds, because dropping from 80(kph) to 55 and then getting back up to 80 costs a lot of time. It's a massive loss.
"So yeah, I don't think that would have been my strategy. We'll debrief with the team later and see how things played out overall. That said, the team showed its strength again."
With two stages with early climbs but flat finishes coming, Netcompany Ineos may have to wait until Friday's summit finish at Crest-Voland to see if they can move into the lead of the Tour Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes GC standings.
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