We are three days into the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, and already three of the main contenders have suffered from the kind of agonising misfortune only the biggest of sporting events can deal to its stars. After Marlen Reusser’s (Movistar) torrid stage one, and Elisa Longo Borghini’s (UAE Team ADQ) struggles with illness since the start, today it was Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez) who experienced the troughs of the Tour rollercoaster, coming down in a crash within 4km of the finishing line on stage three to Angers.
Vollering, the winner in 2023 and second-place last year in what was one of the greatest bike races of all time, was the favourite to be in the yellow jersey when the race finishes in Châtel on Sunday. The sight of her being shepherded to the finish although was worrying for her, her team, and fans of the sport. But unfortunately, it’s not an uncommon sight. Vollering and all those at FDJ-Suez know that crashes are an inevitable part of cycling, it’s the nature of her line of work.
“It’s cycling, it’s a crash,” said FDJ-Suez’s sports director, Stephen Delcourt, at the finish.
But his initial matter-of-fact assessment belied what he truly thought of the incident. Delcourt was not feeling frustrated at a race incident that was in the lap of the gods. Rather, for him, it was the result of an impending disaster caused by others.
“I just want to say it's not normal the attitude of many teams and many riders. They are disrespectful. We have lost the respect in the last year in men’s and women’s cycling,” Delcourt continued. “Everybody wants to play with life like this, and you can see during the stage, we are always at the front. Many say ‘I want to be at the front’ and many teams are really disrespectful.”
When it comes to the Tour de France Femmes, the stakes are as high as they are going to get all season. It’s fever-pitch stuff. The rewards — and risks — are greater than at any other race.
Delcourt was unmitigated in his evaluation of the other teams’ behaviour: “They cut into the lines. Today is the fault of a rider. It's not the fault of the ASO. Now it's time for respect, and to respect the safety of everyone.”
It’s always a curious paradox: the split-second decisions and actions, which can result in crashes and the months and months of training, dieting, testing, conditioning, traveling etc, which go into preparing for a race like the Tour de France Femmes.
“We work a lot for the Tour de France and Demi has worked a lot for it, and we just want to respect the woman before the rider.
“We really try to do our best all day and we can be happy with how we have ridden as a team and how our teammates ride for Demi. For that [reason] there is a big frustration for Demi because she wants to win this Tour de France,” said Delcourt, who was not being drawn into making a decision on what the rest of the race holds for his star rider.
“She’s in pain. When you crash at this speed, it’s never easy. She's completely shocked. She has a pain at the knee, a pain at the glute, and at the back. We need to wait because we never know if it's just shock because of the crash or if she needs time. She will be examined by the team doctor.”
“She really insists that she goes on the roller. That is the good news. She's really positive. She wants to continue, but we just need time to go to the hotel, do the examination, and go to the hospital and after one night we can come back to tell you.”
With the outcome of Vollering’s crash up in the air, and with Reusser and Longo Borghini already out, what can we expect from the GC battle at this Tour? Vollering has not lost any time to her key rivals as the incident happened inside the safety zone, so if she can continue, she will fight to the end. She is a rider who has shown in the past that can shoulder pressure and can fight back from all kinds of disappointments, but even without having to face Reusser and Longo Borghini, she now faces a monumental challenge.
Kim Le Court, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, and Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney are all in blistering form, and this year’s Tour de France Femmes is the most competitive edition since it was launched in 2022. It will be one of the hardest stage races to win for all of the GC contenders. Vollering knew this before the start, and she will certainly know it now. For her, her team, and for the race, we can all hope she can fight on.
