Footage shows incident behind Niewiadoma’s anger with Gery
New footage has emerged of the incident that led Kasia Niewiadoma to confront Célia Gery after stage 8 of the Tour de France Femmes.
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The images show Gery on the inside as the group approaches the turn onto the final climb, with Vollering just ahead and Niewiadoma on her wheel. Gery then moves across towards the outside of the road, narrowing the space available to Niewiadoma and forcing the yellow jersey to brake and go around her just as Vollering begins to accelerate.
The Pole is able to regain contact with Vollering shortly afterwards, before being dropped near the summit.
Niewiadoma was furious afterwards, accusing Gery of deliberately pushing her towards the barriers. “If they want to compete, they should compete fairly,” she said, adding that she had “lost all the respect” for FDJ United-Suez.
FDJ sports director Lars Boom rejected that interpretation. He confirmed that Gery had been instructed to stay on Vollering’s wheel through the corner before allowing a gap to open, but insisted there was no intention to obstruct Niewiadoma.
“Célia would never ride anyone into the barriers,” Boom said.
Vollering, who was already ahead of the incident, said she had not seen what happened.
“I’m sure she didn’t do it on purpose,” Vollering said. “That kind of thing just happens sometimes in racing. It’s the tricky part of racing.”
No penalty was issued over the incident. Vollering went on to win the stage and took the yellow jersey from Niewiadoma by eight seconds ahead of Sunday’s final stage.
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