FDJ-SUEZ provides update after Demi Vollering crashes at Tour de France Femmes

Monday’s stage of the Tour de France Femmes turned into a memorable day for Sigrid Ytterhus Haugset, but a less comfortable one for Demi Vollering. The Dutchwoman was involved in a crash early in the stage, although she was quickly able to get back on her bike and reached the finish without losing time to her main general classification rivals. Vollering did not speak to the media afterwards, but there was little sign of panic from within her team.

FDJ-SUEZ sports director Nicolas Maire did provide an update to Cyclingnews on Monday. “She looks OK. We’ll try to see with the physio how she feels, but we have to do a checkup this evening and see how it goes tomorrow,” he said. Tuesday’s individual time trial represents an important day for Vollering and her overall ambitions.

At the same time, FDJ-SUEZ had expected more from Monday’s stage. “We were expecting a bit more from the stage, but I think at one point there is like a poker game, and nobody wants to play for the other, so we lost time,” Maire explained, referring to the gap conceded to new yellow jersey Haugset.

Maire described the Uno-X Mobility rider’s successful move into yellow as “a pity for all the GC contenders”, but also acknowledged that her team had earned its reward. “Uno-X played well and they deserve the win and the yellow jersey,” he said. “The Tour is still long, and we’ll fight in the next day to come back in the GC, but yeah, we were expecting a bit more from this stage. We tried to be in the breakaway with Célia, but it didn’t work exactly as we wanted.”

The FDJ-SUEZ sports director also questioned the tactics adopted by some of the other teams. “There are a lot of riders like Le Court-Pienaar and Vos who can come here and play for a win, especially without Wiebes. So, I was expecting that they would chase a bit more,” Maire said, appearing to refer in particular to Visma | Lease a Bike and the presence of Marianne Vos in the chasing group.

However, he repeated that “nobody wants to ride for the other” as the chasing riders arrived almost three minutes behind. Attention therefore quickly shifted towards the race against the clock. “I would say I expect a good TT from Demi, but we know that, for example, normally she will lose time on Reusser, on maybe Van der Breggen,” Maire concluded. “Normally, she can win some seconds on some GC contenders, so that’s what we are looking for. If she plays really well, I think she can for sure try to be on the podium on this stage.”