VIDEO | Furious Pauline Ferrand-Prevot lashes out against La Vuelta Femenina organizers after TTT disaster

La Vuelta Femenina began today, however - as has happened in the past in the very same city of Barcelona in the men's race - the opening team time-trial saw some chaos. In this case a few teams had issues with their start because of a delay in the checking of the bikes, and Team Visma | Lease a Bike were quite harmed by it which led to a big lashing out from Pauline Ferrand-Prévot on social media.

On an Instagram story, since deleted, the French rider explained why two of the team's riders began after the rest, in what would culminate in the team losing 20 seconds to Lidl-Trek in the opening TTT of the race. "WTF!!! How the organization of a Grand Tour can be SO amateur?" she wrote in the post. "Is the jury sleeping while checking our bikes?!!! We were there 20 min[utes] before the bike check and 2 of our girls didn't make it on time. We kept saying to the jury we had to go but seems they were in chill mood".

The message was truly a venting of frustration over a very unfair situation against the Dutch team. "So much preparation and effort for nothing. Losing so much time on GC... UCI you prone for a fair sport, but this is not the way to go".