“It feels very sour that I lost by just four seconds" - Demi Vollering left rueing 'stupid crash' after Tour de France Femmes heartbreak
Cycling
Demi Vollering left it all on the road in the quest of a second successive Maillot Jaune victory on an absolutely epic final stage of the 2024 Tour de France Femmes. Sadly for the Team SD Worx - Protime leader, despite her best efforts, it wasn't quite enough.
Starting the day more than a minute down, Vollering knew a big effort was needed and that's exactly what she attempted, attacking with more than 50 kilometres still to go. She immediately dropped the Maillot Jaune of Katarzyna Niewiadoma with her attack too, riding clear with fellow contender Pauliena Rooijakkers. Despite the best efforts of the two up the road however, Niewiadoma limited her losses extremely well and kept the lead duo within range on Alpe d'Huez, eventually saving her Maillot Jaune by just 4 seconds.
“It feels very sour that I lost by just four seconds," admits Vollering in her post-stage interview, rueing a badly timed crash earlier in the race that had left her with so much work to do. "Because before the Yellow Jersey was very secure on my shoulders, but then the stupid crash was there and I lost it actually there. It’s really painful to know now that it was not enough today. Normally I would also be able to do it, but today I had a lot of pain in my back. It was a big fight against myself on Alpe d’Huez."
"I tried to fight with everything I had. I know that we have an event in Holland and there are a lot of people fighting every year for a good charity for cancer research. All those people fight all the way to here [Alpe d’Huez]. Today I was thinking about this. I could never give up, that was what I did, but it was not enough," Vollering concludes. "I won two stages, one time second and one time third, I had a very good Tour de France, only one day was a bad day.”
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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- lol yeahmij08-11-2026
- I know, their headlines can be so misleading. Pidcock had a great season with 5 wins. and some solid 2nds. no reason to take away from that with a fake headline.mij08-11-2026
- You can clearly see the the posture change from slightly sitting to again out of the saddle while changing of gears in the video of the sprintabstractengineer08-11-2026
- He has already beaten Pogi twice in the TDF. the achievement is over. He cannot beat Pogi now and he only has a few years left at the top. Win Giro and compete in the TDF, maximise palmares.abstractengineer08-11-2026
- Just looked again at the photo. Yeah I stand by that. If MS had fallen over in Brands direction I don’t even think she would have hit her. You must be a UCI race commissioner. I’ll be sure to check my sock height should I ever see you on a ride. Looks like everyone else on here sees what I see.mij08-11-2026
- I said looking at the photo it doesn’t appear she deviated. Chill out, not stating my word is the final judgement. Just commenting that based on the photo I don’t see it. And BTW the Dutch coach even said she didn’t impede her.mij08-11-2026
- Blah Blah Blah !frieders308-11-2026
- MS said she was changing gears so that caused her slight deviation. Nothing was intentional.frieders308-11-2026
- How can you use a photo post incident to judge the incident itself (which is not hard to find if you’re prepared to invest the same amount of time in searching as writing that comment? It’s harsh but technically right even though this or worse is not always sanctioned in every race. The two things that went against MS (who unfortunately for her would still have won without making her mistake) are that it was not a bunch sprint where there could have been an overlooked incident or mitigating circumstances explaining a deviation. Everything was focused on just those 2, Schreiber was riding beautifully balanced which made her sudden deviation look unnatural stroke as if it could have been in some part intentional whilst she was slowly drifting ever closer towards the barrier to a point that would have reached obstruction level. In her defence, it might have been the realisation she was heading towards that that made her react suddenly and caused the deviation involuntarily. In any case, congratulations to her for the ride of her life, in people’s minds she will be credited for it.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- Good boy Obviously doesn’t need that much help dealing with pressure, as some have suggested. Wiser (and humbler) than many far further along their careers. About offering him the moon, recently someone came up with an explanation of the downfall of a football great (either referring to Maradona or Portuguese Ronaldo) saying it was kind of normal after coming back from the moon, except that others, including some who actually did go to the moon like Armstrong (Neil in case anyone is too switched off to realise) didn’t go through any of the same motions after coming back. A lot of how you deal with situations has less to do with the situation than with your character.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
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Joy and sorrow go hand in hand. Big win on l'Alpe d'Huez, but Tour de France Femmes lost by just 4 seconds. Proud of how Demi Vollering fought and rode a fantastic Tour de France with two stage wins and a second place in the GC. Photo's: @GettySport
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