Jasper Stuyven has accused several of his Belgian teammates of riding to support Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel at Sunday's Gravel World Championships in Leuven.
Van der Poel won the race by 1:03 ahead of Belgian Florian Vermeersch while another Belgian – his Alpecin-Deceuninck teammate Quinten Hermans – took third at 3:47 down.
Stuyven finished in fourth as the Belgians finished with four of the top five placings, but he later said that Hermans and fifth-placed Gianni Vermeersch were riding more in support of Van der Poel's ambitions than Belgium's.
"It's annoying. Those guys didn't take over, but they do it when it suits them," Stuyven said to Sporza, referring to the riders working in the chase behind solo winner Van der Poel.
"It was very clear that all the guys from Alpecin were here to help him. Although I had expected that we would race in [national] teams."
Behind them, the chase group of Stuyven, Hermans, Gianni Vermeersch, Connor Swift (Great Britain), and Matej Mohorič (Slovenia) ended up battling over bronze after falling well adrift of the two leaders.
Vermeersch, who won the inaugural Gravel Worlds in Veneto two years ago, responded to Stuyven by saying that "it is always better when someone from Alpecin wins", seemingly confirming Stuyven's accusation.
"It wasn't up to us to close the gap," he continued. "But we weren't really a limiting factor. We always tried to take turns a bit. I would've liked to win myself.
"Ultimately, we all try to go for the title. I don't think it was really a problem."
Hermans, who scored the bronze medal after finishing sixth on his debut last year, said that "the plan was to ride together with the team."
