20 hours ago
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Demi Vollering’s hopes of continuing in the Tour de France Femmes are uncertain after she crashed at speed on the approach to the finish of stage three in Angers. Vollering landed on her back and left side, and also hit her head, but was able to remount and finish the stage, which was won by Lorena Wiebes of Team SD Worx ProTime.
“Stupid crash,” the 2023 champion told teammates after getting back to her FDJ-Suez bus. “I could already see it coming.”
Vollering appeared to sustain most of the impact on her back, although she was also seen checking her helmet for damage. She also crashed in last year’s Femmes, again injuring her back, when leading the race overall.
Despite her injuries, she was able to warm down on her bike and ride to the team’s nearby hotel. Her general manager, Stephen Delcourt, appeared to blame others in the peloton, saying: “It’s not normal, the attitude of many teams and many riders. They’re disrespectful. We lose the respect in the last years in men’s and women’s cycling.”
Vollering, he said, was “in pain, in her knee, her glutes and her back”. Vollering too has been critical of the attitude of her peers, particularly after her disastrous crash in 2024 when leading. After Tadej Pogacar crashed in Toulouse during the recent men’s race, she posted: “So kind of the bunch not to use this crash to take time on Pogacar. Guess men are a bit more kind.”
Delcourt said: “When you crash at this speed, it’s never easy. She’s completely shocked. We need to wait, because we never know if it’s just the shock of the crash, but she will be examined by the team doctor. She’s really positive, she wants to continue, but we need time.”
Marianne Vos, who took back the overall race lead 48 hours after winning the first stage to Plumelec, said: “It’s the Tour de France and everybody wants to be in the front. It was pretty chaotic, especially coming into the city on a descent with high speed.
“It’s not really about respect, but everybody is fighting for every centimetre and unfortunately things can happen. Of course, it’s the riders fighting for position that makes it dangerous, but it’s not about respect.”
The crash, 3.6km from the finish on a wide left-hand bend, was inside the five kilometre “safe zone”, negating any time losses on the general classification. Already the racing has taken its toll and while the defending champion, Kasia Niewiadoma, has safely navigated the first three stages, plenty of others, including Vollering, have suffered.
Marlen Reusser, winner earlier this year of the Tour of Switzerland, abandoned the race on stage one, while Elisa Longo Borghini, the Giro d’Italia winner, quit before the start of stage three. For Kristen Faulkner, the Olympic road race champion, the opening stages have been a baptism of fire. On stage two the American was caught up in a crash and only just made the daily time cut, although she finished safely in the main peloton in Angers.
