Lars Boom went ‘back to the drawing board’ with Demi Vollering

Demi Vollering won the Tour de France Femmes on Sunday, understandably sparking pride and satisfaction within FDJ United-SUEZ. Lars Boom, sports director of the French team, spoke to NOS after the race had finished in Nice. “How are we going to celebrate? With plenty of good red wine, I think,” Boom said.

Vollering rounded off her Tour de France Femmes with another stage victory in Nice. “It has obviously been a hard-fought battle over the past few days, so to get another stage win today is definitely very welcome. And yes, we’re incredibly happy with this victory.”

So how had FDJ United-SUEZ prepared for the final stage? “Well, you know Kasia is going to attack on that steep climb, so obviously you have to follow her. And the plan was definitely to try to win, especially after everything that happened yesterday. We wanted to do our talking with our legs, and that’s what we did.”

Boom was referring to the incident involving Kasia Niewiadoma and Célia Gery. “That’s not who we are. I think it’s a shame that it has been portrayed that way, particularly because it has been blown up by the media. Célia had a really terrible night, and you don’t wish that on such a young rider, especially someone who is only at the beginning of her career.”

“So yes, we’re incredibly happy to win this one, absolutely. We were already happy beforehand, but even more so now,” said Boom, who can finally take some time to enjoy Vollering’s Tour de France Femmes triumph: her first overall victory in the race with FDJ United-SUEZ.

“The staff has grown over the past few years, with bigger and bigger sponsors coming on board. We made enormous steps when Demi, Juliette and Evita joined the team — although Evita was already here. And we just keep making new plans. We’re incredibly proud that all the work by everyone on the staff and throughout the whole team has now been rewarded with this victory.”

“I think that after last year we went back to the drawing board. In my opinion, and also in the opinion of her coach Lot, we were asking her to race too much. We wanted to make sure she was mentally fresh for races like this, and for the training camps as well. And I think we managed that pretty well,” Boom concluded.