"I stopped to pee, and the commissaries blocked me from coming back to the peloton" - Evita Muzic misses out on Tour de France Femmes podium after controversy
CyclingTuesday, 20 August 2024 at 14:25
The 2024 Tour de France Femmes came to a dramatic conclusion on Sunday afternoon with a stage for the ages of the Col du Glandon and Alpe d'Huez. FDJ - Suez climber Evita Muzic crossed the line 3rd on the day, but missed out on the final podium, finishing 4th overall.
Finishing just over a minute down on Demi Vollering and Pauliena Rooijakkers on the stage, Muzic eventually ended up 1:11 off the top 3 in the general classification. Had it not been for a curious and controversial incident on the Col du Glandon however, might that have been a little different?
"I was not at my best on the Glandon. I stopped to pee, and the commissaries blocked me from coming back to the peloton. I was disappointed for this," Muzic explained of the controversy in her post-stage interview. "Luckily, I had Grace Brown with me. It was 20km full gas to come back in the bunch, and it cost me energy on the Glandon. I missed Demi and Pauliena in the front. But I felt better for Alpe d'Huez."
In truth, Muzic doesn't use this incident as an excuse either. "I lost too much time in the first part of the week. Maybe, for me, it would be better if we had more mountain stages at the Tour de France. I trained a lot on the threshold on the long climbs. It was the first time in my life that I think it paid off," the Frenchwoman reflects. "But maybe I was missing a bit of punch for the stage in Liège that was needed for the GC in the end, but we need to think about this for next year."
"I am disappointed not to finish on the podium, but the three girls in front of me were just better than me," concluded Muzic sportingly.
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Someone explain this. Did the commissaires screw her up, or is there a rule in place?
It depends what you read. You must admit that information from cyclinguptodate.com:
"I was not at my best on the Glandon. I stopped to pee, and the commissaries blocked me from coming back to the peloton. (...)"
sounds very different from information that you can read somewhere else:
"The FDJ-SUEZ rider revealed to the media that after the barrage – which stops team cars from moving to the back of the group to avoid them being used to help dropped riders rejoin – she was forced to chase for nearly 20km (...)"