I don't knucklehead Demi at all, her team SDWorx on the other hand, are a huge fail for abandoning her after her crash. Her team wasn't supporting her... she was on her own. And she almost did it.
Wiebes did take her out, but I lean toward believing Vollering, who said that it was unintentional and unavoidable. Saying, “I saw something yellow on the ground” and riding on to sprint for eighth place, however, is a “never ride for me again” offense in my DS handbook.
@@ChrisHornerCycling I think the title about Demi being a knuklehead is clickbaity and unfair to Demi. Demi is the greates GC rider of this moment and she kinda deserves some more respect than being called a knucklehead.... Demi crashed and injured her back. And her team deserted her when she she needed them the most. As if the yellow jersey meant nothing to them. THAT is the reason she lost the tour.And I don't blame her for going all in. She had a lot to cope with, including a back injury wich she didn't know how big of an issue would become later in the stage, and now zero confidence in her team so she just went for it early. It is easy in retrospect now we know she lost by only 4 secs to say that she made the wrong move by doing so. There are a lot of 'what ifs' involved. Had Demi not crashed OR her teamates would have helped her at the time then she would have won the tour. Tactics in stage 7 would have not even mattered then... It is as simple as that.
@@hansolo2121Humans are no Gazelles. We do not have only big legs to cycle, we have also a brain to plan or act more or less intelligent within a bike race. These videos contain always a much more easy to perform „after race“ analysis than a „pre race“ prediction would be. But from all what we have seen the last years within the men’s races nobody is going solo over two mountains even with the far superior legs on the final and decisive stage, nobody gets lost there like in the Tokyo (women’s) olympics. Vingegaard planned such a move on the last mountain stage and he placed two relais exceptionally strong team mates ahead for support. Did you see this in the women’s race? Either the team directors are amateurs (and that is what I am starting to believe) or female riders are far less used to stick to a plan or - this is a team special - there was no plan at all to get her into the yellow jersey, again. Either it was a desperate move to win the Tour or a bold plan which failed at the end. Probably she is simply used to break all opponents by brute force? And you always look like a knucklehead in bike races when your plans fail. I can cheer for the winner while I am sad to see the strongest rider being beaten in an unfortunate way. This is not chess. All these post race videos are just another form of entertainment. Do not take it way too seriously.
Class act - ok I will give you that. Ice cold act would be to attack on Alp dHuez... To go solo on the last climb. This is in retrospect of course. But the tactics are sound like that. If you want to pull a Tadej, you have to go all in, not looking back on the flat for help from a top 3 competitor. Once you go Tadej you never look back :-) my opinion... No disrespect :-)
Entire team abandoned the yellow jersey. That just seems unforgivable. Vollering is leaving that team and it will be interesting to find out how and why the toxicity on that team emerged.
I don't think it's toxicity. But always relying on sheer power, they never learned team tactics. Anna for sure is well meaning, but being "educated" in that very team, internalized that poor approach to tactics.
Demi is not the Knucklehead she has no option. She can not trust her team. Isolation was not her choice. She did what had to do bad back and all. Demi almost pulled it all so her legs were pretty good. Yes, SD Worx as a team and their team tactic are a bunch of knuckleheads. Don’t lump Demi with that team of knuckleheads. They don’t need to fix anything on Demi's behalf because she leaving the team of Knuckleheads.
The idea is that had she waited till last climb, she would easier get her 1 minute 15 seconds. She would be more fresh. She took enough time now on penultimate climb, but lost a bit in between that and the finish... This is realy not difficult to see....
@@andrehof7876 Yeah, it's all so clear...IN HINDSIGHT. It takes a lot of distance to make up 1:15 on a rider who climbs almost as well as you do - she needed the descent too. Did she know Lucinda Brandt would even be there to help Kasia? No. Did she know Brandt would be so strong? No. Did she expect at least a couple turns out of Rooijakkers? Yes.
@@georgehugh3455 I agree. Lanterne's summary said that Demi actually waited for Rooijakkers on/after the decent, so definitely she was expecting some cooperation. In hindsight, she should have just carried on herself.
@@georgehugh3455 I m not going to discuss here, but you are wrong, and not for having doubt, but it is a fact, a law of racing. If you follow this channel you will get to understand, however, some riders and teams seem not to learn... So no promise.
Interestingly, the Strava file Vollering uploaded shows that she has the fastest women’s descent of the Glandon and the fastest ascent of the Alpe, both from Stage 8. “Fastest” in each case is restricted to athletes who post results to Strava. Fastest ever, of course, does not mean that she couldn’t have gone even faster on that day. From my folded futon, it appears that the KNUCKLEHEADS are the team’s two DS’s who failed completely to support their star rider before during and after the crash, and the teammates, who also failed to support her, but may not have been able to. I think Vollering’s actions need to be judged as if she was racing alone without any teammates. They are smarter, and make more sense that way. I’m looking forward to her sending her unretiring DS back into retirement next year. Niewiadoma won fair, hard, and smartly. Vollering was literally hobbled, and figuratively crippled by her teammates under the direction of DS’s whose failure seems so complete as to have been calculated.
Kasia got lucky SDWorx worked against Demi and found riders that wanted to pull with her. As you say, she won fair and square. Not her fault SDWorx is garbage. She raced who was there and won.
She lost because absolutely everything went against her. A crash which lost her time and back pain. Her own team that felt that she should win the Tour on her own and focused everything on winning stages. Canyon SRAM absolutely drilling it as soon as they knew she crashed on stage 5, really dubious in my opinion. And every race situation in stage 8 went against her. Kasia being weak on Glandon and thus ending up in a sizable group instead of alone. Lucinda Brand having the legs of her life and hating SD so much that she loved helping Kasia in the valley. Riders like Muzic working with Kasia in the valley and on Alpe d’Huez even when it Made no obvious sense for them. Even teams like FDJ and Alpecin chasing the early break so the SD plan of helping Demi in the valley fell through. And the Alpecin DS applying his usual underdog tactics when he should have let Paulina Rooijakkers work at least a bit with Demi so they could definitively distance Kasia. The always completely backloaded parcours of the Tour de Femmes which means you always have to win it on the last weekend because there are no real mountain stages or big TTs before. And probably some I forgot. And still she got within four seconds of winning the Tour despite obviously being in pain. Without the crash and big time loss in stage 5 this would have been a completely knucklehead move. In the situation as it was it was quite understandable, and literally every little thing had to go against her for it not to succeed. For me she showed what a warrior she is, and away from the toxic SD team she will be thriving in the future.
I think there's a good chance that Demi went into that last race day with no confidence, and most importantly no trust, in her SDWorx teammates and staff. So she felt she was on her own and I think that explains her riding strategy. Maybe she is a knucklehead as you say. But maybe being abandoned by your team forces you to do things that are not ideal. It will be nice to see Demi riding for a new team next year. A real team, not a fake team of traitors like SDWorx.
Yes. But she can always just draft off the yellow, or even the break, all the way until Alp du Huez. Probably not as clear headed under the pressure tho.
honestly kinda sounds like some mean girls shit going on that team. her teammate takes her out and then that teammate's radio suddenly doesn't work? how bout the other teammates' radios?
You say bad team tactics, but you do not know what their goal was. Maybe they wanted to avoid losing a tour winner to another team. They certainly achieved that maybe they could have made it less obvious.
Tactic wise the first question is probably whether the lineup of Wiebes, Guarischi (withdrawn?), Majerus, Vas, Bredewold & Fisher-Black are capable of controlling big mountain stages. The train was missing big engines like Reusser and Kopecky apart from Fisher-Black all other teammates were dropped on long climb. In the hindsight Vollering probably wanted to keep Fisher-Black for as long as possible and let stronger teams like Trek and FDJ to control the stage, saved energy and rode hard tempo on final climb to try to drop the rivals, which seems doable for under 2 mins gap (we will never know when the likes of Rooijakkers seemingly able to follow the wheels for long duration). This was almost like the reverse of the mountain stage last year when Niewiadoma solo in front chased by other teams only caught by Vollering. Niewiadoma is smarter and more calculated this season. Great drama and entertainment in the end.
I thought Vollering should have dropped Rooijakkers during the descent and go about the valley solo. Demi wasted so much time and energy to do what she end up doing anyway, which was pulling for Paulina. Or she should have just waited with Kasia to get to the base of the Alp d'huez and do a full on attack. Everyone knows Demi is the best climber in women's peleton, so it would have made sense to set a tough but controlled pace the whole stage and then hit the last climb full on.
Vollering waited for Rooijakkers on the descents and the valley. But she probably just wasted her time because Rooijakkers barely pulled in the valley and on alp duez
Vollering waited for Rooijakkers on the descents and the valley. But she probably just wasted her time because Rooijakkers barely pulled in the valley and on alp d'huez
SD Worx somehow didn't realize that Kopecky is the Wout Van Aert of women cycling, she is great on one day/classic, but probably never will win a GT with big mountain stage!
Chris, a serious and possibly pointed question: Why don’t you cover the whole week of racing? The women’s peloton deserves more coverage from all corners. To my mind it was at least as exciting and dynamic, if not more, than the men’s. Cheers 🦋
To my mind, that team was broken. She had to fend for herself almost entirely. A really sad situation, and a poor look for SD Works. I'm still a big Demi fan, but. I'm a newly minted fan of Niewiadoma, too. Badass grit.
I think she knew she had to do it on her own, her team has repeatedly abandoned her. She chose to attack from far out like Pogacar or Remco. I think your point that they aren't used to riding Cols like the Col do Glandon and Alpe d'Huez combo and she gassed herself is on point. I also think maybe Niewiadoma might have had a food bonk on the Glandon. In her interview she said she ate and drank a lot and recovered for the Alpe d Huez. Great racing though, it was much more exciting than the Men's Tour de France this year. Love your work Chris!
she is leaving SD works after this season, most likely to a french team, so hopefully for her they ride wiser. maybe her leaving also was part of the reason why first of all she was left on her own on stage 5 and also on other stages they were more focussed on the other SD works riders, like Wiebes. funny about the team leaders calculated that Vollering woud be able to take 2 and a half minutes on a climb like Alpes Duez on Niwiadoma, so i really dont get why they decided to deviate from that plan and attack close to the top of the penultimate climb and having to do the valley alone. cuz ofcourse you cant take 2 and a half minutes anymore if you had to do the whole valley and descent on your own versus Niwiadoma sharing the work load (and in the valley it was almost all Brand), then the difference between those 2 is nothing as we could see. so its pretty clear if they would have simply attacked on the bottom of the Alpes duez she would probably easily have taken that 1 minute 10.
SdWorx already have pay for her salary, I would think they want as many win and publicity as possible out of her for their and their sponsor well being, but what is a stage win mean compare to a tdf GC? Did anyone remember who win stage 7 of last year tdf? either men or women! yup! nobody without Mr. Google!
Right. I’m going at the bottom of Alpe D’Huez with my team going full gas at the bottom and then you either win or lose. But so much has to happen that’s not in your control from 53k out if you are to win. 🤔🦋👊
Well, the decision to attack with 50+ kms to go is highly risky... I want to point out that Demi wasn't sure if she can regain 1:15 on AdH for a simple reason - she couldn't drop Niewiadoma on the previous stage (7) to Le Grand-Bornand as they both finished ST there. So DV played it very well on her side, she almost won the race.
This analysis makes a lot of sense especially as she said afterwards she was still suffering from the crash. Big credit to Kasia for taking advantage and Pauliena for staying with her. SD worx should be asking a lot of questions of the team they sponsor!
I don't quite agree with you this time... from SD Works it was not simple knuckleheadism - it was much worse! They stabbed her own leader in the back. And so, though it was not the smartest move from Vollering to go as early, I believe she knew she would not have any help if she would stay with her teammates (maybe they even would ride against her...) and so she tried; would call it more of a desperate try than pure knuckleheadism..
Yep, they completely messed up on stage 5 when they didn't wait for Demi. i was saying to myself {as well as the commentators} where are her team mates, she has the yellow jersey. Supposedly Blanka Vas's radio wasn't working and Lorena Weibes, in an interview after that stage said that "even if they had gone back to help her, she would not have ever been able to catch back on". Weibes was the closet to Demi on stage 5 when she crashed and said she saw a flash of yellow going down and heard the crash. WHAT??????? Who else wears a yellow jersey in the TDFF? I think it was Lorena that crashed her own team mate out if you go back and look at the footage, that was a tricky round about that didn't go fully around and verred to the left, Demi knew it and set up perfectly but the rider on her left kept veering right as if to go fully around the round about and crashed her out. Also, i think there is some kind of internal personal nonsense going on with this team and it's seems like it's all being taken out on Demi. if you guys remember the 2023 Strada Bianche when Demi outsprinted Lotte Kopecky and Lotte was NOT happy about that. Her team looks like shite for making Demi loose 2 grand tours. FDJ-Suez will be glad to have Demi on their squad for 2025. i sure hope she kicks the living crap out of SD Works in grand tours next season. She is too nice and she needs to put her foot up some arse's already. This reminds me of the treatment that Sepp Kuss got from Vingegaard and Roglic last year and Roglic telling Kuss right on tv that he needs to keep fighting for the win. Those DBags dropped their own team mate instead of staying with him. Sepp just like Demi is too darn nice. Thanks for the insight Chris. I'll check your Vuelta coverage.
I don't think Demi is well liked. I remember another race when her team did not want to ride for her. Now the team sponsor wants to go full in on Kopecky who is a great rider but not Vollering level. That is like dumping Pogacar to make space for Sean Yates. Another Knucklehead move.
Hey Chris, great video but Vollering's teammates weren't gonna make it over the climb either way. Fisher-Black probably wasn't going to make and doesn't help much in the valley anyway. The rest of her teammates were all way gone so there wasn't much more she could do. I think her big mistake was she waited on the descent for Roojakers as she thought she would help pull in the valley which she didn't. Roojakers isn't a good descender at all and Demi could have taken 30 seconds if she went all out. If Vollering waited till the final climb she might not have taken that much time on Kasia so I think this was the best move. The mistake was on stage 5 when her teammates all left her, that cost her the win, not this.
Don’t worry about her SD Works teammates. If Vollering just stayed in the GC group till the final climb, she would have dropped everyone there. She was easily able to put a minute and a half into everyone over the course of a 15k climb.
I am not an expert, but there were a lot of cyclists without team help-Paula R. herself. Faulkner did really well on her own without much of a team (4/7 team members left). Vollering lost the Olympic as well. Faulkner did it all on her own as there was no connection to Dryger. So, I fell that Demi made her own errors by riding in the pack when the accident occured. I remember Connie Carpenter saying that she always rode in front as she only felt safe there. Demi had the strongest team, she lost it.
FdJ was controlling still. Fisher looked to be really good if help was needed. Certainly no need to wait for Rooijakkers, if she indeed did do tha. 🤔🦋👊
Thanks Chris. I really hope you’ll cover more women’s cycling in the future. Because the teams and races are smaller, it’s a different dynamic that is often more exciting than the men’s races if it would only get more coverage.
Chris I disagree, Yes SDW were knuckleheads the day Vollering crashed, but on the Alpe d'Huez stage what choice did Vollering have? She was 1 min + down, and was only just inside the top 10. It was an all or nothing venture. Had she left it to the last climb would she have gained enough time to beat decent climbers who were ahead of her on GC probably not. In the end she won the stage and almost won the tour. I don't think the women's peloton has the depth in talent to put riders in a breakaway to help their GC riders late in the stage like the men's.
The SDWorx race director obfuscated by saying that it would have taken minutes to get riders back to pace Vollering and there just wasn't enough kilometers left. But if the riders that flew right past her had stopped for her that argument goes right out the window. The teammate who said she saw something yellow on the ground as she flew by is the worst comment any rider has made ever in the history of cycling.
I always say, you never remember who comes second, there is always an exception, this is it. She doesn't have team mates Chris, that's why she had to attack. When you remember great stages, what do we remember, we don't remember Gerraint Thomas, we don't remember Cadel Evans, we remember the stages, when we the stages cemented in our minds. We remember Conator attacking from ridiculous far out from the finish, we remember Pogi, because these try to win Grand Tours, if they come second, they're not bothered, they are winners. Coming anything but the top step is all they care about.
His partner sounded new to the job, but did provide some corrections, and insights. She had a difficult job. Phil couldn’t mention Niewiadoma without also mentioning her lover. Megan Garnier handled an impossible task skillfully.
@@YelCan It was funny. At the same time Phill was commenting on Kasia's last name, He completely missed Taylor running along side her yelling encouragement/
That valley before the Alpe has snuffed out so many dreams. On top of that, SDW sent up teammates in the break to help when Demi got up there but, they were dropped before she got to them.
Demi couldn't trust her team for support, but I do think she made 2 big mistakes: 1. taking too much time to get back on the bike after the crash, 2. waiting for Rooijakkers on the Glandon descent - those lost seconds were the difference.
Demi rides for SD Works.....she had no choice than to isolate herself. I thought you'd torch SD much more for disrespect to the yellow and breaking the golden rule.
SD-Worx had 3 riders in the early break. but they couldn't stay in the main group when they were caught before the top of the Glandon. The appropriate Chris-approved strategy should have been for them to come back to the leaders' group when they still had enough strength to keep up. Ideally, they could have then helped Vollering establish a break and help in the break for as long as possible. Niewiadoma also violated Chris's number 1 rule (keep teammates around you), but was able to take advantage of Trek's goal of getting a high placing for Realini (and also win the team clasification). Fun fact that I learned: Niewiadoma's husband is Taylor Phinney. Not a bad racer in his day and son of Davis Phinney and Connie Carpenter-Phinney--American cycling royalty from the 1980's and 90's.
Women 's cycling is amateur, in my humble opinion, we don't see a team protecting the team leader, no train for sprints, anything, it is exciting though. Normally is everyone for it self.
Chris didn't realize most of Demi "Wingwomen" couldn't really stay with Demi in the mountain, even 4 of them was out in the break, at first mountain only Niamh Fisher-Black manage to survive and help launch that attack 50km away! all her other teammate was drop like yesterday meal at that point! so let me ask again? attack at 50km or 12 km, Demi is on her own anway! Did Chris even watch the whole race or just the highlight?
@@mracer8Of course 12 k. And she did not need teammates to give her a free ride down the last decent and through the valley because Lidl Trek was riding… All she needed to do was stay in the GC group till the bottom of the final climb and take off from there. She could solo from 12k out and put a 1:20 into all of them on the final climb.
Best movie experience I ever had. Watched it at Point Loma near the military base in San Diego where they filmed it. And I grew up military. Amazing experience 👊🦋🛫
Yes, looked like SD Worx didn't work very well, not a good look at the sport's biggest showcase. Sorry, my radio didn't work...ouch. I like Katya who has had her share of tough losses, so good for her. The strongest rider doesn't always win; judging by her smile she seemed ok with that.
I disagree about Rooijakkers. She must have known Demi was on a mission and should have worked with her. She ended up racing for 3rd rather than 1st or 2nd
Chris, thanks for covering the women's pro peloton. Watching it from my Chesterfield, I had an even different take that perhaps Trek was riding for Kasia to some degree, reminiscent of the 2020 Vuelta with Movistar seeming to help Roglic. Vollering is the strongest climber and probably couldn't have been brought back. And then we saw Muzik take the time bonus perhaps unnecessarily at the end. With everyone riding for GC placings in a shorter GT, the sport couldn't be more exciting
Not sure if Trek were riding for Kasia so much as against SD Worx - the teams are arch-rivals - they're the two biggest women's teams and Trek doesn't win as often. Also, though, Lucinda Brand, the Trek rider who was riding for her teammate Gaia Realini and did the bulk of the work, was teammates with Kasia at Rabo Liv for the three years Kasai was there, from 2014 to 2016, so I suspect they're still pals. Whereas Lucinda had never been in the same team as Demi (hardly ever even in the Dutch national team).
When you listen to the post race (final stage) interviews and also watch the part where Vollering was (it seemed like almost bickering) with Rooijakkers, you know something was wrong. Vollering is bitter with Rooijakkers and very disappointed in the outcome. But her team is nowhere to be found after the race. One has to wonder if they just don't like her or if the DS is really messed up. Matt Stephens tries to bring out the positive in her performance, but Vollering doesn't even once acknowledge Kasia for her win. I think she took a huge gamble in the breakaway with 50k to go but was expecting to work with Rooijakkers and when that didn't workout, the whole plan fell through. You'd think after that crash the team would never leave her because it was foreseeable that she could lose the time gap, but no, they didn't stay with her on the final stage. Seems dysfunctional.
Apart from all the shenanigans after the crash by SDWorx, I thought the team wasn't all that strong either (my opinion). Demi a knucklehead, not sure about that, bit harsh I would say. More a victim of the race conditions. I think SDWorx really lacked some big engines like Reusser or Kopecky to protect her towards Alpe d'Huez and finally get her half way up.
SDW won the "Knucklehead" Team Points Award for sure. Demi really ran a nice race, SDW abandoned her. Kasia defended heroically, blew up, but came back. Great race.
Kasia didn’t win so much as Demi lost. They sent four riders of up the road and they didn’t do anything. Where were they? Did they stop for a cafe con leche? Demi almost pulled it off with her team fighting against her. Truly an amazing performance. Kasia got super lucky Trek had aligned interests otherwise she would have been demolished. It was the perfect storm of incompetence/malice from SDWorx and finding riders that wanted to pull also.
I think Sdworx did her dirty. They know already that she’s parting ways with them. So that’s SDworx way of saying your’re on your own now if you want to win the GC. Politics
The question is why nobody wants to ride with Vollering? Not even her teammates. I know she won a lot of races herself like that staying in the wheel of notably van Vleuten with her team mates in the chase. But I see her so often flicking her elbow without reply, or at least it seems that way, it feels there is a lot of emotions involved.
Very unfair to Demi. She gave everything and lit up the stage and the race. Only mistake she made was waiting for another rider who was racing for second. Won't happen again.
This analysis is just weird. If Rooijakkers had worked with Vollering, she would have gotten either first or second place in GC, depending on whether she gets dropped or not. Instead she got third. Rooijakkers should have worked on the flat and even at the start of the climb and tried to save energy from the second half of Alpe d'Huez (to try to drop Vollering prior to the sprint). Lucinda Brand (Trek) saved Niewiadoma when pulling for Realini (Trek) on the flat after Glandon prior to the Alpe. If Rooijakkers had pitched in even a little more, Kasia would not have been able to retain yellow. In hindsight Vollering should not have waited for Rooijakkers on the Glandon descent. That probably cost her 30-40 seconds, but at the time it was the more sensible choice, believing Rooijakkers had enough incentive to pitch in herself. Vollering was betrayed by her team when she crashed and did what she could to win the Tour. She needed to attack from far out, because it's quite improbable to take more than a minute out of Niewiadoma just on Alpe d'Huez. Can happen, but it's more likely if the race is much harder prior to the Alpe.
Those who say Rooijakkers should have worked with Vollering are knuckleheads :) Despite not working with Demi, Paulina was dropped by Demi in the final. How would Paulina drop Demi after working with her if Paulina was unable to drop Demi after not working with her?
@@mitchhorton9178 First of all, second or third doesn’t matter. By not working, she had a chance to win it all in the scenario that isolated Vollering blows with 2k to go, which almost happened. Second of all, second place is not guaranteed if she takes pulls with Demi. If she pulls and blows herself early, she could’ve been caught by the GC group and ended up 7th on the final GC, not second.
I think it's harsh calling Demi a knucklehead because I think had she done what you suggest she wouldn't have got the time she needed to win the race. I also think that Rooijakkers was a knucklehead for not extending the break during the valley before the final climb, I'm not saying overdo the pull, but do some work to get the time gap out to over 1 minute 20, maybe more. What I think you failed to see, or forget to mention, is that Vollering waited for Rooijakkers after the descent, that's why the time gap came down to below 50s from over a minute, she this because the news from the team cars was that they could work together. In the end I'm happy for Niewiadona because she did what she had to and managed her effort to add your as she could have limiting the gap to what she needed to. I honestly don't really know what Rooijakkers was thinking, the only thing I've got was sacrificing going for the race win to win the first Alpe d'Huez stage of the TdF Femmes, but me that's a knucklehead move because she lost the stage anyway and never even contemplated helping get the time gap up to a level where the race and stage win was between the front two. Yes, the chasers behind bright a little time back but that was only because it was one rider, the teammate race leader burying herself on the flat into the final climb against one rider, Vollering, at the front so had to leave herself and leave enough energy the final climb. Sure I agree with you that had Vollering had also had a teammate with her it would have been better but having what her teammates did earlier in the week when she crashed I don't think there was any trust in them from Demi. Lastly, from what heard on social media and from other reports SD Works did send some teammates up the road but they weren't good enough (or maybe aren't willing to put the effort in for their team leader, again!!!) to be of any assistance in the latter stages in the final valley section. What I say though is that it was amazing race to watch, the gap, which on mountain stages isn't always that reliable with all the switchbacks, fluctuated back and forth, getting closer to the time Demi needed and then back in Niewiadona's favour. I think Vollering had to go on the penultimate climb, which I think at the top is harder and was the only real chance, though slim, of getting the time back she needed. I just don't know what Rooijakkers was doing, you say forever, I say I just don't get it. I wonder what the situation would have been had she had a few more seconds advantage over Vollering such the bonus seconds on the line didn't matter, would have still sat on or at least done the most nominal amount of pulling she could get away with doing that much, I guess we'll never know. Oh, and for the record I watch very little women's cycling, just a bit of the grand tours and maybe the Olympics and World Championships,I don't know if these riders apart from van Bluton and Lizzie Deignan back in the day (mainly because I'm British), I don't favourites amongst the women. A couple of other things I thought you might mention, firstly the way the swaneur over the rain jacket to Vollering was a of art, and what about that sprint by Taylor Phinney to his girlfriend and race winner after she'd just crossed the line?!!! 🦋🦋🦋
That Rooij did nothing to help! She could've pulled in the valley and gotten them both a huge gap and gotten one in a two. There was some politics going on that wasn't just bike racing. I'm glad she got at least dropped at the line.
@@johnpearceboyer I don't think they'd have been able to pull out a huge lead in the valley between the penultimate and final climb as Niewiadona did have a teammate pulling for her on that section but by working together they could have maintained the lead they already had and maybe pulled out a little more as it would have been the 2 leaders against one domestique pulling behind so for me this was the no brainer. Doing no work I found very odd and I was happy that it didn't work for Rooijakkers and that she didn't even finish second overall.
IDK, Chris. I can't totally agree with this take. 1) I think she had zero trust in her team to put her into a winning position. 2) She decided to take the race by the horns, confident that she's the "Pogacar of the women's peloton"...but 3) she was hurting from that crash more than she let on. and 4) imo, her knucklehead move was waiting for Rooijakkers, who was on her limit, to work.
All your 4 points validate Chris's analysis. If you are best but hurt and without help, you need to pick wisely your battles. She would have won if she had attacked on Alpe D'Huez. Up the final mountain with a fresher Demi, no one in the peloton could save Katia.
@@L.O.K.I But can she pull out 1:15 from Kasia in that one mountain? maybe yes, maybe no! if Demi attack at Alpe D'Huez, maybe she will win, then just as easily she might only gain 30 second and lose by 40! Kasia is not as strong as Demi! but she is the second best out there!!
@@mracer8 How much time did she put into Kasia on the penultimate climb? I think it was 30 seconds at least. And she only attacked about 2k from the top.
@@L.O.K.I She wouldn't have been able to pull out 1min 15 on the Alpe had they all gone into it together, by that stage it would have been game over. She'd have probably got a gap out to maybe 40s but that would have been it. I don't think Demi was that hurt at all, maybe a little stiff but not enough to stop her nearly doing what I thought at the start of the day was impossible and turned out to be that way. The difference was that the race winner had a team that worked for her during the whole race Demi didn't, simple as that.
By that logic, Niewiadoma won despite being a knucklehead. She did the same thing. In fact, almost everyone in the top 10 did the same thing, the women's teams don't have enough riders to follow the number one rule on the Butterfly Effect. You called out Lucinda Brand and you're right. But she's the exception. If Vollering had decided to stay with Fisher-Black until the Alpe d'Huez, then she would have been three minutes behind Niewiadoma on the Col du Glandon. And Fisher-Black is the only SD Worx rider who can even keep up with Vollering a little bit. She broke the number one rule on the Butterfly Effect but not because she was a knucklehead. It was her only path to victory. I agree with you on Stage 5, though, that's obvious.
Sorry, Fisher-Black wasn’t 3 minutes behind Niewiafoma on the Glandon. She rode tempo up that climb setting up Vollerings attack. Plus, if Niewiadoma drops Fisher-Black, then no problem, sit on Niewiadoma for 40k!
@@st14 Sitting on whoever is the virtual race leader until Alp du Huez is definitely the strat. Unless she' not confident that she can beat everybody and anybody up Alp du Huez 1:15 worst case.
You know that Demi is leaving SDWorx at the end of the year, right? (It's only been the biggest transfer news of the year.) She is expected to sign with FDJ Suez.
SD Worx never had to rely on brilliant tactics, because they used to have just the strongest girls on any kind of terrain and won their races as conservative as it gets. Stage 5 might just have been a combination of unfortunate circumstances as no one of Vollering's teammates seemed to be aware that she could loose the Tour due to such a delay. Despite the high mountain stages were still to come Vollering already led the classement. After her furious TT and dominating the Ardenne stage as well each of her teammates plus her steam were tempted to believe the tour was already won and dusted as the final stages ought to be even more in Vollerings favor. So Blanka Vas just saw the opportunity just to hang on and waiting for the final sprint as all the big sprinters were left behind. Furthermore the next group saw Lorena Wiebes battling with Marianne Vos for the sprint classification. Only Mischa Bredewold was teaming up with Vollering, before she got dropped soon thereafter, as the pace of a rampaging Vollering is hard to match. On the other side, do you remember how lame the Team BORA was driving Roglic towards the finish line ? Okay, Primoz dropped out after the stage.
Vollering waited for Rooijakkers who then didn't take a pull for 50km. If she had taken a single pull she would have been guaranteed 2nd place with a shot at 1st. Instead, she screwed Vollering out of the overall victory, and then attacked her to try to steal 2nd---after Vollering pulled her from 7th place overall up to a podium spot. Is women's racing usually this negative?
A few woman are real winners. Rooyakkers never won anything and will stop soon winning nothing and was extatic to be number three instead off number two. Will not been missed in peloton or remembered off anything.
@@maneskin8097 Exactly! She was incredibly negative for such a strong rider. She gave up 2nd overall to wheelsuck Vollering out of 1st. That said, Niewadoma showed a ton of heart and courage.
I haven't gone through all the comments, my thoughts (and maybe someone else's) is that Demi may have avoided the crash by being more up front in the peloton. From the TV images it looked as if she was more in the middle of the pack where the crash occurred. Oops on her.
I agree, Chris, Vollering went too early on that final stage. Some people just can't be patient and confident; she could have taken back a minute and change on the Alpe d'Huez, we have seen it so many times in so many years. Now it was a lonely battle with a non-cooperating Rooijakkers on her tail, who was right to not collaborate as she had her own interests to take care of. I don't root for Vollering but I do respect her and consider her the most capable of the current riders.
I totally agree. I would add that on top of those bad decision, waiting for Paulina on the downhill was another big mistake. She probably lost 20-30 seconds waiting for her to gain almost nothing on the flat. She should have just dropped her in the descent and go solo Tempo to the end. And yeah I know, easy to say when not on the bike AND after the race :)
Regarding stage 5, at 7-8km's to go there was 2 SDW riders (Bredewold, Vas) and 4 from Canyon on the front. Video goes back to the breakaway with only the high helicopter shot on the bunch approaching the roundabout with 6km to go. Demi was back in around 20th wheel at the time of the crash. They were going full bore at that point for the stage. An odd thing I haven't seen noted yet? is the SDW car arrived after getting through the crash, Demi hops onto her bike & doesn't even look at her team car as she starts rolling past it. You can see the team Mech come from behind the cat with a bike for her but she was rolling away. 20secs later you can hear her calling on the radio that she needs a bike. From that point on you don't see anything from the car, they may have been attending their other rider (or 2?) that was also down? So I kind of thought at the time it was odd why did Demi roll past her team car when it was right there for her? What's the chance her radio was damaged and not working and since she'd rode off they stayed to attend others?
I'm not a huge watcher of cycling, in fact I didn't see any of the Men's race this year, and only watched three stages of the Women's but even I know that calling Vollering a knucklehead is extremely harsh. In my opinion, why would you wait to the bottom of Alpe d'Huez to try and make up the time? You're basically putting all your eggs in one basket by hoping that Niewiadoma wouldn't be strong enough to maintain the gap. The knucklehead in this is Rooijakkers. I was literally yelling at the TV saying "what the hell is she doing?". She has a chance to win the whole thing....but only if the two work together to make up the time gap! Extend the time gap and then let the cards fall where they fall at the finish line! Sure, she might not be able to gap Vollering at the top either, but she had to take that chance, but in the end, even if she had won the stage, she wouldn't have won the Tour because she didn't help to make up more time on the flat! Vollering did make the mistake of course by expecting that she'd get help so perhaps you could say that was knucklehead-ish, but also harsh.
When I saw her launching from far away I thought she was trying to pull a Pogi in Strade Bianche…she just did t have the juice to finish it off. I wonder what the DS was saying in the radio
7 minutes is short for such an epic stage. Did SD Worx team management consider lining the team up and controlling the race all the way to the foot of Alpe d'Huez? If Niamh Fisher-Black had set pace at the bottom of the final climb it would be a safe bet that Vollering would have won the stage and most likely the Tour. I believe that there were many variables that were tipping the balance of the race in favor of Vollering or Niewiadoma. The largest variable was Trek and Lucinda Brand chasing the 14k before the final climb. It appears that the Rooijakkers was only looking for a stage win and not the GC victory. Where was SD Worx management? What kind of tactical plan did they have before the start of the stage? Vollering may be much better off moving to Visma Lease a bike if management has better organizational skills and tactical awareness. Such as having the team wait for their leader if she crashes. The big news is that Women's cycling has reached parity with Men's racing by providing world class athletes and the excitement and drama that men's racing always has.
It took Demi 1 minute to get back on the bike after her fall, more than many around her, but certainly seemed more than needed. Didn't help that she didn’t have another bike either from a team mate or her own car. Than in the chase she lost another 45 seconds in 6km certainly with 3 helpers that should have been less. She waited for Rooijakkers which probably costed her more time than she gained from working together. And then the going solo for 50km when you believe you can make up more than 2 minutes on the last climb according to her DS. So many learnings ... Not sure if all these mistakes would add up to 4 seconds but probably any of these mistakes would be more than 4 seconds.
@@YelCan Yeah, it was like she was in a daze. Demi Vollering has very seldom crashed, though, and that might have been a factor - it's not at all something she's used to. The only other time I remember was on a wet descent towards the end of Durango-Durango in 2021 and even that was off-camera. I just remember reading that she said, "I learned the ground is hard..." In the TdFF crash she did well to scrub off almost all her speed before she went down, so by then it was more of a heavy fall than a crash. She likely wouldn't have crashed at all if her teammate Lorena Wiebes hadn't got into her although of course that wasn't intentional - they went into the roundabout with Wiebes on Vollering's wheel. Wiebes is wayward, though - she crashes herself two or three times a year on average, most times self-inflicted. She's a terrific sprinter but lacks a sense of personal space and caution, it's just the way she is. They're not typical sprinter's crashes either, they're fairly random and few if any are in sprints. Each one seems to be a coincidence but so many aren't!
The Ego of Vollering is what did her in. On her next team I bet she gives her teammates the level of respect they deserve. I don't see her having the same level of success as she had with SD Works. Don't blame SD Works. There is more to this situation, it goes back to strada when we got the first out in the open look there was something wrong. Why would a team throw away a Yellow Jersey. Unless the leader said I'm going solo I don't need my team. That is why they are all in on Lotta she is a teammate first, Van Der Breggen is coming back too. Vollering is a great rider but there is something missing. If she was a true team leader her teammates would have done everything in there power to get her where she needed to be.
I asked this elsewhere: who would want their sister, GF or daughter to sign up with SDWorx, after this TdFF? I would not, unless staff changes occur. 😮
I understand what you’re saying however there is nobody on Demi’s team that can help her gain the time she needed. The major mistake was on stage five. Her team wasn’t ordered back to help her after the crash and they certainly didn’t volunteer to do so. If her team was all in to keep and win the yellow jersey, they would have been there for her. Demi is leaving. She’s a lame duck leader and there was little to no loyalty to her! She had the ability to win the tour on her own. She’s that much stronger than the rest of the peloton. The crash took her out of it. I don’t see any other way she could have won other than what she did. The #1 rule applies when you have a team that has the ability and is willing to help. I don’t believe either are true!
I’m loathe to question your expert analysis……..However on the day Vollering had to find over a minute to overhaul Kasia ( who clearly was in brilliant form). I think she felt it was too much to claw back on the final climb ( I’m inclined to agree)….and in fact they clocked very close to the same time on the Alpe itself. So that would be the case for going early. I do understand that she had to spend far too much time with her face in the wind, maybe her team could have protected her a bit more?
Given that Rooijakkers rode the race she could ( intelligently and not really doing any significant pulling) Vollering would have probably been better off NOT sitting up and waiting for PR. I think she did 95% of the work on her own anyway so should have gone all in and I reckon she'd have won as she would probably have gone 30 sec quicker on the descent. It's all moot though as SDW really lost the tour when ALL the team (apart from Vas) didn't drop back when DV crashed ....She would have minimised her losses and been in a great position if she'd only been 30 sec back. I bet SDW are really celebrating Weibers' 8th place sprint on that stage🤔😒!!!!
She lost because she crashed period. Her team wasn't much help. Stop with the knuckleheads' stuff bro. I know it's your thing. Like Victor Campenaerts "My man" OK ❤
No. She lost because her teammates didn’t wait for her after she crashed. You cannot control a crash from happening but you can control what your team does afterwards. If we want to keep it very simple. 🤪🦋👍
Why should she trust her team after stage 5? I think she knew it was all on her, and i think she waited on the downhills for Rooijakkers because she thought a little help was better than no help (yes that was wrong but most people would second guess themselves on Alp D'huez, and she was in pain). I can't think of a team in any sport i hate except for SD Works, glad Demi is going to FDJ and happy for Kasia
I agree with Chris. She isolated herself too early, burnt a lot of matches while doing solo before the last climb. She was too confident and miscalculated her ability to climb Alpe d'Huez in pace that will allow her to win the race. But of course, her team is also to blame. It seems like for Lorena Wiebes sprinting for 8th or 7th place (Not sure why. To take some points from Vos?) is more important than helping your team leader. Blanka Vas needs a working radio to notice the most important team member, wearing the most noticeable uniform in the whole bunch, is missing? The real FAFO moment for SDW.
Oh heck, yeah man I agree with you. 100% Demi is the Tadej of the women’s racers.. yeah I wish SD works would’ve had their act together. Yes Demi is the most powerful number one racer.
With teammates like she had, if they didn't help you after a crash, they're useless and you're better off being isolated. At least you know you're in the company of the enemy.
