FDJ manager hits out after Vollering crash: ‘They’re playing with people’s lives’

While stage three of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift was a fairly regulation sprint day, perhaps the main drama was not on the finish line, but at 3.5km to go.

There, as the peloton tackled a right hand bend after a river bridge, a crash took down a number of riders, including pre-race favourite Demi Vollering. The Dutch rider was seen limping heavily as she was helped to her feet and onto her bike by her FDJ-SUEZ team mates. They then escorted her over the line finishing 143rd of the 146 finishers.

As a sprint stage, organisers had put in place a 5km ‘sprint zone’ so despite finishing more than six minutes behind the winner, Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime), she will not lose time. More importantly, though, are her injuries, and whether she will be able to perform to her optimum in the coming days, or whether she will even start stage four on Tuesday morning.

“She’s in pain, when you crash at this speed it’s never easy,” FDJ-SUEZ team manager, Stephen Delcourt told journalists gathered at the team bus. “She’s completely shocked, she’s complaining of pain in her knee, hip, and back. We need to wait, because we never know if it’s just the shock.”

The incident happened on the hectic run in to Angers after what had been a relatively benign stage, SD Worx monitoring and bringing a breakaway back just outside the town. The pace into the city was extremely high and as the the front of the race eased for the right hander others surged from behind. With nowhere to go, one of them crashed, catapulting Vollering across the road and causing a domino effect of other riders going down.

Road racing is inherently dangerous and designing a safe course is difficult with modern road furniture and traffic calming, but Delcourt refused to blame the crash on the organisers. 

"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," Delcourt continued. "That crash wasn’t ASO’s fault, it was the riders. It all comes down to respect."

"I’m so frustrated, because Demi has worked so hard for this. We need to stay positive and look ahead. But Demi’s health is our priority. We won’t take any unnecessary risks."

Vollering will be examined at the local hospital and receive a concussion check before any decision on her further participation in the race will be taken, though Delcourt insisted on being positive. 

“She will have an exam with the team doctor, and she insisted on getting on the rollers [after arriving at the team bus] - that is good, it is really positive. She wants to continue, but we just need time to go at the hotel, [have an] exam at the hospital and after one night we can come back to you to tell you."

Vollering has started all four editions of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift since its inception in 2022, winning the race in 2023 and finishing second in both 2022 and last year, when her performance was also affected by a crash. Then, she was taken down on a roundabout, losing almost two minutes on the general classification. Despite a valiant effort to reclaim that time, including a final stage win at Alpe d’Huez, she fished second overall by four seconds.