"Today, it is clear that we are no longer in tune with our athletes. The athletes made some remarks. Today, we feel that they are not able to hear some of our speeches," Vittoz told the handful of French journalists in Oslo.
"We were ready to continue, clearly. But today, there is a break in this discourse," he added.
Vittoz, the 2005 world champion in cross-country skiing, and Favre took the reins of the men's group five years ago, after the 2018 Olympic Games, and chose to leave for a new Olympiad after the 2022 Olympic Games.
But "when you feel a breaking point, you must not be stubborn," said Vittoz. The team of France must continue differently, today we would have been a brake for the future."
"We had a lot of ideas but they don't stick, training is based a lot on confidence, today we feel that this confidence is lacking," added Favre. Forcing things is not a good thing."
The Blues are experiencing a post-Olympic season far from the standards they had accustomed. They have only obtained five individual World Cup podiums over the winter: only one for Quentin Fillon Maillet, the five-time Olympic medalist from Beijing and holder of the big crystal globe, three for Emilien Jacquelin - who ended his season early - and one for the young Eric Perrot.
For the first time since 2009, before the great Martin Fourcade era, they did not stand on any individual podium at the Worlds in Oberhof (Germany) in February. They were nevertheless crowned relay world champions ahead of Johannes Boe's Norway.
© 2023 AFP