On the floor, stage 2 of the Tour de Romandie Féminin was an ideal day for SD Worx-Protime: They took a 1-2 as Demi Vollering received the stage forward of Lotte Kopecky who’s the brand new total chief going into Sunday’s ultimate stage. However, the duty of managing the 2 stars’ race packages and characters is changing into more durable and more durable with solely months left till Vollering leaves the crew.
“I don’t know. It’s a wierd scenario as a result of I’ll depart the crew, so I hope my crew shall be impartial on this. We will see tomorrow,” Vollering stated when requested concerning the plans for stage 3. She then requested the interviewer for affirmation that Kopecky was forward of her in GC earlier than persevering with: “Probably they may go for her.”
In such a scenario, riders often use the pronoun “we” to seek advice from the crew. It is feasible, even probably, that Vollering was referring to the game administrators, Danny Stam and Anna van der Breggen, who make the selections on crew ways, however the poignant phrasing however raised eyebrows.
When different groups get a 1-2, their riders will typically cross the end line celebrating collectively, however Vollering and Kopecky sprinted towards one another for the victory – and never for the primary time. In the 2023 Strade Bianche, they fought for victory amongst themselves on the final 400 metres within the slim streets of Siena after catching and dropping Kristen Faulkner. Then as now, Vollering received the dash.
Vollering’s departure on the finish of 2024 was introduced in the course of the spring season, and within the stage races that adopted, the crew was criticised for not supporting their GC chief in addition to they may have, each within the Vuelta Femenina (which Vollering received) and the Tour de France Femmes (which Vollering misplaced by 4 seconds after shedding time after a stage 5 crash).
“Our plan was to attract the opposite groups out and allow them to attempt to drop us. They tried to do this, however they did not handle to drop us. In the tip, 5 riders remained, three of them from our crew. Niamh Fisher-Black was the primary to assault, she tried once more, then Realini took the initiative. Demi countered that assault, then Lotte fought her approach again. In the tip, Lotte and Demi had been the one ones left,” Stam defined the plan the crew had laid earlier than the stage.
The Tour de Romandie Féminin is likely one of the races the place the UCI is testing how races do if groups are usually not allowed to make use of radio communication between the riders and the game administrators. This meant that no resolution may very well be made within the crew automobile on who ought to win the stage.
As Vollering remarked, two riders from the identical crew sprinting towards one another will convey the fairest consequence, however mixed with previous incidents, it does paint an image of a soon-to-end relationship that will not be adversarial as such however isn’t that amicable anymore both.