With top sprinters like Arnaud Demare and Nacer Bouhanni, FDJ are used to winning at a regular basis but since Bouhanni's win on the opening day of the Paris-Nice, the team has been unable to cross the line in first position. Today Bouhanni broke the drought and the team was pleased to finally have found back to their winning ways.

This week Nacer Bouhanni has taken a lot of headlines due to his public criticism of his team's decision not to select him for Milan-Sanremo and he has even mentioned the possibility of changing teams. Today he showed his team management that their selection maybe was a poor one when he won the opening half-stage of the Criterium International.

The win came at an important time for the French team which was one of the most successful in the 2013 season. This year the team has had a harder time and so sports director Franck Pineau was pleased that the drought had finally been broken.

"It's good for everyone to win,"he said. "We lacked a bit of success since Paris-Nice. During this stage, everything went as we had desired. With a breakaway of four riders, we did not allow them more than four minutes. All team riders have fulfilled their role until Laurent Pichon and Sebastien Chavanel took things into their own hands for the sprint.

"In the sprint Nacer was ideally placed by his teammates and Australian Nathan Haas (Garmin-Sharp), who took some places of honour at the Tour Down Under, launched with 200 meters to go despite the headwind. Nacer took his wheel and jumped to win easily. This is our fifth victory this season, the third for Nacer. Yes, it feels good ..."

Later in the day Bouhanni lost his leader's jersey in the time trial.