'Blown out of proportion' - Niamh Fisher-Black hits back at SD-Worx criticism on 2024 Tour

Recent World Championships silver medalist Niamh Fisher-Black (Lidl-Trek) has spoken out about the media criticism faced by her former SD Worx teammate Demi Vollering, and described how narratives surrounding SD-Worx's team dynamics during the 2024 Tour de France Femmes were over the top.

"I think it was blown way out of proportion," Fisher-Black said on the Domestique Hotseat, regarding media narratives about SD Worx during last year's Tour. "We spent the whole 10 days or whatever together, and there was never a problem. We didn't have any internal ongoings in the team or anything. We all did everything that we could actually to make sure Demi could win that Tour de France.”

Fisher-Black particularly resented suggestions that she and her teammates abandoned Vollering after a crash in the finale of stage 5, which saw the Dutch rider cede the yellow jersey and left the team to face plenty of criticism for a lack of cooperation.

"I hated the fact that the media came out and told me that I was a bad teammate and everything and told my other teammates that they were bad teammates," she explained. "It was an honest mistake that we didn't see her for a long time in that crash, and we didn't know the situation."

The Kiwi rider also shared insights behind her difficult decision to leave SD Worx after four successful seasons racing for a team who were pretty dominant and to explore a new challenge with Lidl-Trek.

Fisher Black played an important part as a super domestique, but also showed her abilities to fight for success in her own right, including winning a stage at the Giro d’Italia Women in 2024, a race where she also finished in the top 10 overall during each of her four years with the Dutch team.

"I was four years with SD Worx, and I joined them as a very young rider, so they pretty much became like my family," Fisher-Black said. "In the end, what encouraged my decision to leave was that we saw maybe quite a shift in the team in the last year. I mean, we saw a lot leave, and it means a little bit of change in dynamics.

"I thought, yeah, I'm a young rider and I hope I have many years left in my career. Maybe I will regret it if I never try something different. Since this year, I haven't regretted my decision. I think that Lidl-Trek is also a really, really great team."

Regarding Vollering, who also transferred from SD-Worx at the end of 2024, now racing for FDJ-Suez, and continues to face intense scrutiny, Fisher-Black discussed how it resembles a “tall poppy syndrome” common across sports.

"Demi is an incredibly talented athlete, and she's won a lot of really great races. So it's normal that she receives a lot of criticism," she noted. "Having known her as a teammate and being friends with her, I know she takes a lot of pressure from that, and also, I think she has her own struggles dealing with it all."

After winning the gold medal in the under-23 World Championships in 2022, in Wollongong, Australia, Fisher-Black came mightily close to pulling off the same feat in the elite ranks just a couple of weeks ago, ending second behind surprise winner Magdeleine Vallieres.

Having got into the move on the attritional circuit in Kigali, Rwanda, Fisher-Black was at the head of the race, heading into the final ascent of the cobbled Côte de Kimihurura, where Vallieres made her race-winning move, with the Kiwi describing the moment. 

"When she made this move really on the bottom of the cobbled climb, she could just get out of the saddle and float across the cobbles," Fisher-Black recalled. "I was bouncing so much I couldn't get out of the saddle. I was really like, 'okay, just sit down, try to put the power down and try to come back.' But I never saw her again."

While some portrayed Vallieres as an unknown breakout star, Fisher-Black was familiar with the Canadian's abilities.

"Her performance on the day did surprise me. I think she really had the race of her life, but it does annoy me that a lot of people say to me now, like it's the first I heard of her, because I do think that she's been performing incredibly well," she said. "I remember racing around the top 10 with her at the Ardennes Classics. She's always been thereabouts and always been there."

Enjoy the full Hotseat episode with Niamh 👇