Tom Dumoulin questions FDJ – Suez tactics at Amstel Gold Race: “Didn’t you put your cards on the wrong person?”
CyclingMonday, 21 April 2025 at 09:00
Tom Dumoulin has expressed strong criticism of FDJ – Suez and
Demi Vollering’s performance at the Amstel Gold Race, following a surprising
turn of events in the women’s edition of the Dutch Classic.
Rather than being shaped by the pre-race favourites, the
race saw a large group of shadow contenders break away and battle it out for
victory. Notably absent from the group was Vollering, but her teammates
Juliette Labous and Amber Kraak were present. Their decision to push on left
Dumoulin baffled.
Speaking to NOS, the former Giro d’Italia winner said,
"I didn't understand it at all. We had that group of more than 20 men
ahead, with all the shadow favorites together. But not the absolute top
favorites."
Dumoulin singled out FDJ – Suez's tactics in particular, "Vollering
was not there on behalf of FDJ, but we did see Amber Kraak riding at full speed
in the lead. While she only has Labous as her second rider.
“And that while SD Worx is there with three men. Including
Lorena Wiebes, who you certainly do not want to take with you to the finish. So
they did gamble that Labous would drop Wiebes and actually everyone else
anyway."
While Labous managed to momentarily distance Wiebes, it
wasn’t enough, "She rode Wiebes off on the Geulhemmerberg, but then she
doesn't get away alone. And then you end up in a situation where you see the
race slipping out of your hands and Labous ends up fourth in the sprint and
then you have nothing," Dumoulin continued.
He questioned the logic behind leading the chase when
Vollering, their top rider, was not in the front group, "If there are
three men from SD Worx and you have your absolute leader – Vollering – in the
group behind, then as far as I'm concerned you can tell SD Worx that they can
sort it out themselves. They didn't do that. They took control of the race with
two men. To be completely honest, I didn't understand it."
Looking back at how the race ended, Dumoulin suggested
FDJ–Suez may have backed the wrong strategy, "I am very curious to hear
what team manager Lars Boom has to say about this. Vollering does win among the
favorites.
“She rode away on the Cauberg and crossed the finish line
with a slight lead over the rest. Vollering appears to be the best of the
favorites. Didn't you put your cards on the wrong person?"
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It's funny. but I didn't see any men racing in the women's race.
No, but more than plenty making a living commenting ;-)
Funny he focused so much on that and didn’t mention the situation for Lotte at all. To be fair about the men thing, it might be a mechanical translation problem, I think in Dutch the size of a team or group of humans is expressed by the same word as the male sex, a bit like in English when you speak about humanity in relation to the planet you say man. We all know this cheapo freebie of a website has no proofreading budget and that kind of makes it more human and funny, also teaches you to read between the lines to understand what they’re trying to report often because so much is badly translated.
I understand that there are things that are 'lost in translation' on a site like this, which don't necessarily have the budget for things like proofreading that larger publications have. My sense of humour may not be that funny after all, but I do seriously appreciate being able to view articles and and comment on them without having to pay a fee, which is increasingly rare these days..