FDJ manager keeps stirring the pot, Visma opts for calm
Just hours after Visma | Lease a Bike and FDJ-Suez seemed to bury the hatchet over Demi Vollering’s crash at the Tour de France Femmes, tensions have flared up again.
Despite a 20-minute meeting between Jos van Emden and Stephen Delcourt before stage 5 - and reassurances from both sides about mutual respect - Delcourt has reignited the feud with a personal attack on the Visma director.
In the aftermath of Vollering's stage three crash, Delcourt accused rival teams of endangering Vollering and showing “a lack of respect.” Van Emden called the comments “completely ridiculous,” saying FDJ wanted to place Vollering “in a golden cage.” The two men spoke face to face on Wednesday morning, joined by Visma sporting director Jacco Verhaeren, who described the conversation as constructive.
Delcourt, however, didn’t hold back when speaking later in the day to Sporza. “When I talked about a lack of respect, I wasn’t just referring to the crash. It’s been like that since the start of the season,” he said. “It’s not the first time Van Emden talks like this. For him, it’s all a game. I think he’s a stupid man. That’s all I’ll say.”
Despite the earlier effort to de-escalate, the French manager’s comments suggest that the animosity between the two camps is far from over.
Visma kept Van Emden away from the media on Wednesday and instead sent fellow directeur sportif Jan Boven into the mixed zone. He took a more measured tone talking to Sporza: “It looks like a bit of a mind game is being played. We need to be careful with that and focus on ourselves. Pauline (Ferrand-Prévot) and Marianne (Vos) are in great form, and so is the team. That’s where our attention lies.”
Boven reiterated the message of calm and mutual understanding expressed by Verhaeren earlier. “We’re aligned when it comes to respect and safety in this sport. That’s what matters most.”
The war of words is unfolding against the backdrop of a tight GC battle. Marianne Vos currently wears the yellow jersey for Visma | Lease a Bike after a strong start to the week, while FDJ-Suez’s Demi Vollering and Visma’s Pauline Ferrand-Prévot are both key GC contenders within their respective teams. Vollering, who crashed in stage 3, currently sits sixth overall, 25 seconds behind Vos and 7 seconds behind Ferrand-Prévot.
