A war of words erupted between team bosses at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift.
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Uh Stephan Delcort of FDJ Suez made these comments following a crash. Demi was caught up in the it was the end of stage three that happened on Monday. He said that crash wasn’t ASO’s fault. It was the riders. It all comes down to respect. The mentality of some teams is unbelievable. Truly disrespectful. They’re playing with people’s lives like this. Demi wants to ride at the front, but they keep cutting her off. Now, we did touch on this in studio where Danny Row had some pretty strong opinions on this and we have an update today because team Bizma Lisa Bike have responded and Yosan Mden has said, “I have no respect at all for these comments.” Let me be clear, what he’s saying is completely ridiculous. He seems to want a pelon of eight riders with Demi in it riding in a golden cage. Sure, she’s the best rider, but that doesn’t mean everyone has to move aside for her. Some strong comments there this morning. Danny Christmas, from a DS’s perspective, what do you make of these comments? Uh, yeah, I mean, obviously they are really strong uh comments, very direct in their approach, um, but also seem to be almost putting words into other people’s mouths. We’ve seen that um, from from team bosses speaking on behalf of their riders. Um, and then yeah, kind of talking over other team bosses as well. So I think as well there’s a lot of tension within the teams because this is the biggest stage. Everyone is under an awful lot of pressure. Um, so I’m not sure how the riders in those teams will feel about this when they have enough going on on the bike. They want to perform at their best and there’s now an awful lot of noise that’s going on around them that they have to deal with in the media as well. I’m sorry, but there’s absolutely no way the riders are going to be approaching that three and a half kilometers to go saying, “Do you know what? I’m going to cut up Demi Volering because she’s the biggest threat to us.” I completely agree to some respect with Jos Vanden because everyone deserves the right to be there. This is the tour of France fam. So, you know, they are going to be fighting for position. I think it’s got nothing to do with trying to cut Demi Vering up to try and um I don’t know, sacrifice her chances in in this year’s tour. It’s just to do with this being the biggest bike race in the world. And this is background noise that she just doesn’t need. And it is, you know, she’s not asked for this here. I think she has fueled the fire in the past with different things that have happened. But here, you know, these margins are so small. And this is energy that she is going to be now expending with all of this noise going on in the background with these DS’s now fighting between each other, who’s right, who’s wrong. And ultimately, they just need to focus on their performance. And that’s the DS’s job to take all of that away from them. And actually what they’re doing is they’re adding to that energy that’s going to take away from from what they need to do here on the bike race. Yeah. This can’t be ideal preparation for those riders involved with this conversation. Audrey Demi Volering always seems to be involved with the noise. Why is that? Yeah. Well, she she’s a very emotional rider. Uh you could see yesterday on her interview pre-race, she was really on the edge. uh almost crying. I think she’s been uh putting so much pressure on her shoulder by herself, but also obviously by the sponsors of the team, by the team itself. So, she really want to do it perfectly. And she was in the middle of this crash, but she was also positioning herself in the sprint when all the others were just like stepping back. All the other GC riders stepping back a little bit. Let it go. Let the sprinters doing their job. Follow and try to stay safe. No, she was there in the middle. Of course, they’re not going to look at Damy. If they want to go, they go because it’s a sprint. If it was the same crash, maybe Al after 20ks in the middle of the race, I would have say, yeah, you know, yeah, it’s it’s a pity it happens and yeah, you have no choice, you have nowhere to go, so you crash. But when you know it’s a bench sprint where the wall race has been so quiet, you know everyone is fresh, everyone want to be there, step back, stay safe in the back with one or two riders next to you. That’s Cassia was there as well. There were other GC riders there at that point of the race. And I think that was such a, you know, a point of the race where they knew it was going to be dangerous and we know nine times out of 10 at the front of the bike race is the safest place to be. But it’s just I don’t know. I just find it hard to get my head around. She’s so vulnerable. We saw that yesterday. She was in tears at the start of that bike race. And she doesn’t need this on top of her to, you know, when she’s trying to focus on putting out as much power as she cans and saving that energy.
33 Comments
This huge, enormous anti-Vollering cabal is forcing me to rally behind Vollering when Puck and Gigante are my girls.
Pro sport was just another bad idea. Brings out the true humanity of selfishness and greed. The men's peloton is exemplary though.
So, if you don’t want to go down by being mid-pack, in a wide entrance, drive pace and make the cost of coming around the sides, aerodynamically, too high….
Aah, Demi, the crybaby😢, at it again; it was just a matter of time.
Nobody owes Demi conceited bitch anything. Glad somebody got ahead of her again today. I Never liked her and now I like her less if possible
Good grief…. You need to watch the men, bunch of amateurs I say.🤣🤣🤣
had nothing to do with respect
Two guys get in an argument and the women have to ride through it. Classic!
Just like the WNBA here we go promoting drama that is insignificant because the sport is so boring
It was not about Demi, it was about that dumb fuck not holding her corner. If someone else was in that position it would have been a crash also. It's about behavior. If something like this happens in public space there will be blood.
Everybody has a point. It was hazardous cycling involved. You can call that out, so they will think better next time, to protect your rider. But sprints are messy, and the corner were the streets narrows before the sprint, is extra messy. Stay in front of the crowd, or stay behind and away from the ones whose job it is to risk their health. But it's a race, too, there is no truly safe place. Pogacar also had a nasty crash after being cut, while he was staying behind safely.
Hey, DS's…get a very big room that will handle your ego's, talk it out, THEN make statements. Ladies cycling /= facebook tirades. I've got a few people interested in cycling – especially due to the ladies, but sheesh! the sport doesn't need stupidity. That's what the UCI is for 😉
Maybe these supposed "professionals" should ask themselves:
"is this how a professional cyclists rides ?"
Big Egos don't make Big Winners.
Women …Drama! Anyone surprised? 🤔🤷♂🚴
Did the talking head with yellow shirt realize that Kasia is right in front of Demi? Did she also think that Pogi shouldn't be in front pack since he finish 17 out of 21 stage in top 20! including most "SPRINT" stage!!
Of course no one gives an inch to anyone, specially when she's one of the best. Why should you give an inch to one of your best competitors? It's the problem that the greats have to deal with, they are always evreryone's target.
"I completely agree to some respect with Jos van Emden". There's commitment!
It looks like a professional mistake but why doing comments without even reviewing the replay in video ? I do not understand this channel. Eurosport/GCN was beter.
Oh come on now. it's not INTENTIONAL These girls can't RIDE well enough to pull this kind of thing off INTENTIONALLY. This is just the kind of shit road racing and "competition" you get when you stick a bunch of riders out on the roads–with VERY little riding experience–and even LESS racing experience. They're slow. They're sloppy. They're DANGEROUS. They have no idea how to race as a TEAM–because no one ever really taught them. They can't even go through a simple round-a-bout or cross over a BRIDGE without crashing. It's sad. it's pathetic. And is definitely not "professional bike racing".
Too bad Phil Leggett and Bob Roll don't call this race, too. Every year in the men's race they comment on how chaotic and dangerous the first few stages are with all of the adrenaline. Stuff happens. Pogacar almost got taken out at the very end of the second to last stage on Saturday by a rider doing something stupid. I had just thought that the only way he could lose is if he can't finish and then, bam. So close.
Visma Leadership, DS and Managment, are demonstrating incredibly poor sportsmanship in both Tours. It make me want to sell my Cervelo so as not to be associated with them. Mind you this is a LEADERSHIP issue as the riders are executing “Team Orders”
Why I cant watch women cycling, complete amateurism
This Stephen guy is a “DS” expert after only doing it for a couple of years…what a F’n hack! He needs to be fired ASAP!!!
He’s making excuses for a good rider Demi…he’s a male chauvinist…trying to man-explaining $hit. Demi can explain her own option. What a F’n D$&KheaD!!!
Demi acts like an entitled spoilt brat. This generation of riders does not bode well for cycling. If they're not going to win, they just abandon the race – cf Remco.
Pogacar crash😂 metode to down the potencial winner
It's about time somebody said something, about egoïstic egocentric attitudes of these bikers. The number of mass crashes has increased on the male and feminist tours. Especially the Tour de France.
It is "at least" disrepectful biking but above unnnecessary dangerous. The new way. Organize a crash to take out your opponents.
I suspect teamorder crashes. Happens in F1 as well.
Respect.
Bikers have conduct problems anyway also in public traffic. Think they biking paths. Drive like idiots.
Van Emden is a mediocre teamboss , as was his cycling carreer
Vollering is a drama queen!, she thinks she's above everyone else….. she is a great rider but mentally she is an energy vampire! …. where's the bloke on the panel?….. I like it when there's a mix during the men's tdf…especially Hannah Walker! why not here?
Very unprofessional bike handling imho. No respect and riding dirty😮
Demi Vollering acts as though she's entitled.
It's a common knowledge that Visma likes to play dirty in male or female team. It's just their gameplan. Just look at what they did on TDF mens race just to beat Pogi and they still failed.
Always drama around Vollering… It's a pattern
It's almost always carelssness, or poor bike handling and NOT intent when it comes to crashes as the sprint trains try to get to the front to lead out their sprinters. Throw in speed, road furniture, roundabouts, pinchpoints, and hard turns and you have the perfect recipe for danger and mayhem. A touch of wheels and half the peloton is on the floor. These bikes are so light on the front – I don't have a pro machine, but my front forks, wheel and handlebars ( all carbon fibre) are probabaly less than two kilos – it takes nothing to swipe my wheel from under me. Even strong winds throw my front wheel around so it doesn't take much to end up face-planting on the tarmac along with 20 or 30 other riders when you have been riding shoulder-to-shoulder at 50-60kmh. Yes there will always be attempts to block or barge certain riders but these days most of the tour is on camera and if unsporting behaviour is discovered, the UCI has pretty servere penalties for the offender/s from hefty fines to being thrown out of the tour, especially with the new revised safety regulations.