"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
Cycling
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.
Kieran WoodDeputy Editor-in-Chief
Kieran Wood is a sports journalist based in Wales and has been active in journalism since 2022. He regularly contributes to DartsNews.com and CyclingUpToDate.com, where he covers professional cycling and darts. In cycling, his work includes liveblogs from major races, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España, alongside race reports and analysis. He has also conducted interviews with professional riders.
His reporting spans the full racing calendar, from one-day classics to stage races, with a focus on accurate, real-time coverage and clear contextual analysis. For statistics, results, and historical context, he regularly uses resources such as ProCyclingStats. To support reporting on rider activity and training context where relevant, he also references Strava.
In his work, Kieran places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles as new, verified information becomes available.
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Dariusz08-11-2026 - Yeah, unreal.
parisbound0008-11-2026 - there needs to be space in life for pointless comments!Ketterechts08-11-2026
- That is a very lazy way of putting it but so far on this website it seems like everyone is happy to look at everything lazily, even things that annoy them intensely. All they want to do is state their feeling and position but ask most to analyse a problem or come up with solutions or improvements and you’re stunned by silence. Nobody even really knows how this all happens. It’s very simple and quick to just say the UCI did it but I bet you they didn’t, I bet you not more than 2 people were involved, more likely just 1. The UCI may be ultimately responsible but it is not their decision, this is about hierarchy, power and delegation. The fact that protest is possible also means it isn’t over and that MORE people could get involved for a thorough review which could throw up anything. It is highly likely it was a sole commissar who decided and has that power in a first round. Therein might lie the problem the UCI has to consider, is it acceptable to give so much authority to one single person when it is quite possible for them to have a natural bias or be too easily susceptible to imposed bias. Who is to say an individual in this position isn’t susceptible to collaboration with outside players with interests in the results, nations, families, teams, betting companies, etc. On the one hand we have sports where these problems have been worked on way more to reduce such problems, on the other hand we have sports with far stricter and more draconian rules not even concerning safety or obstruction that nobody really questions like false starts or stepping out of lane or zones in athletics. If cycling hastowork on itself, it would be good if protagonists (all kinds) would start doing a little more than just moaning over outcomes.Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
- Yes, so why not make comments less pointless?Jumpyjohn08-11-2026
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WHAT A FINAL ! What courage of @EvitaMuzic fourth in this @LeTourFemmes with @GoZwift 💛 #TDFF2024
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