"Team management did not fully support her in that infamous fifth stage" - Thijs Zonneveld slams SD Worx after Demi Vollering loses Tour de France Femmes by 4 seconds
Cycling
Demi Vollering came incredibly close to a second successive Maillot Jaune win at the Tour de France Femmes on Sunday afternoon. After a thrilling conclusion to the 2024 edition however, the Dutchwoman lost out to Katarzyna Niewiadoma by just 4 seconds overall.
With such a small margin deciding the race, many are looking back to Vollering's late crash on stage 5, where she lost over a minute and the Maillot Jaune. Most questionable though, was the lack of desire to help from her Team SD Worx - Protime teammates, something noted by ex-pro turned cycling pundit Thijs Zonneveld.
"Lorena Wiebes had seen 'something yellow' lying there when she looked back. She said it as if it were a banana, or Spongebob Squarepants, lying there on the asphalt. But that yellow was the leader in the race, her own teammate, the big favorite to win this Tour: Demi Vollering. It didn't occur to her to stop or wait," Zonneveld recalls for Algemeen Dagblad. "The team management didn't mind either. They would have preferred her to sprint to a great eighth place."
"It turned out, in retrospect, to be the stage in which the 2024 Tour des Femmes was decided. A silly crash cost Vollering almost two minutes. Where other teams reacted immediately and had domestiques wait, the team management of SD/Worx decided to let Blanka Vas and Lorena Wiebes race for their own chance," the expert continues in disbelief. "Because 'you can close that much in a few kilometres'. And the Tour would not be decided by a handful of seconds, right?"
Zonneveld also thinks he knows the reason for the lack of desire to assist Vollering's quest for yellow. "It was certainly not the first time this year that Vollering was virtually on her own. She is not exactly being thanked for leaving Team SD Worx - Protime," he muses. "You see it in the race. Time and time again. At SD/Worx they bet on multiple horses - and preferably on the horses that will still be in their own stable next year. If only because the team management did not fully support her in that infamous fifth stage. Bye yellow, bye Tour. And that for an eighth place for Lorena Wiebes. My mistake, thank you."
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.
claps 2visitors 2
Just in
Popular news
Latest comments
- 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
- I think that they're not really used to dealing with this type of incident in a cyclocross race, and the situation has been magnified because it was a race for a championship title. It's very unfortunate that the race had to be decided in this way.
santiagobenites07-11-2026 - Seriously why do they keep doing stupid things like this. Its one thing to relegate when the placings are minor, when the action is blatant. But when it is ambiguous, why dont they at least take advice from some higher up to avoid embarrassing themselves. This is similar to the Halland goal when his teammate was clearly offside and interfered in play and VAR gave them the goal. if you dont have evidence you cannot convict. Even for doping they have these rulesabstractengineer07-11-2026
- So all those who went to watch, including all from abroad, waled there, spent nothing? Most places hosting events of the sort manage to make it worthwhile. If it was so obviously fruitless, don’t you think by now they’d have run out of hosting candidates? Why do you think the Tour can command such high prices for departure and arrival locations? If it didn’t bring anything locally they’d have to pay to get authorisation to use cities.Jumpyjohn07-11-2026
- What a travesty ! That little deviation did nothing to impede Brand !frieders307-11-2026
Loading
Demi Vollering falls just short of Tour victory despite win on Alpe d'Huez Four sour seconds With an attack of no less than 54 kilometres from the top of the Col du Glandon, Demi Vollering managed to win the heroic stage to l'Alpe d'Huez, but on the Avenue du Rif Nel she fell
2 Comments