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Welcome back to Spin Cycle,
The Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift is in full swing, and the good news for this newsletter is we have Femmes beef and Hommes beef. Beef everywhere you look. Oh, and Ben Healy is having a whale of a time in northern France still. Too much fun, if anything.
Demi’s ‘golden cage’ 😮
Amidst the continued glow of the Tour de France with the Femmes avec Zwift racing into a fourth week of July Tour vibes, one beef between two of the peloton’s heavy hitters is probably the off-bike story of the week.
Following a nasty crash for Demi Vollering on stage 3, her FDJ-Suez boss Stephen Delcourt decried the lack of respect in the bunch. “The mentality of some teams is unacceptable. Truly disrespectful. They’re playing with lives like that,” a furious Delcourt told Sporza. “Demi wants to be up front, but they’re constantly blocking her.”
Visma-Lease a Bike’s manager Jos Van Emden (remember him?) wasn’t having any of it, however, saying Delcourt’s words were “completely ridiculous” and that he has “just been influenced by Demi – by her dramatic behaviour.”
“Demi really thinks she’s in a golden cage,” Van Emden continued. “Sure, she’s the best rider. But that doesn’t mean everyone has to move aside for her.”
The Guardian’s Jeremy Whittle papped the two team bosses speaking directly to each other rather than through the press on Wednesday morning, and seemingly couldn’t straighten things out as after the stage Delcourt responded once more: “For me, he is foolish and only thinks about himself,” Delcourt told the assembled media.
Matt de Neef has been following the story on the ground for us, witnessing an emotional Vollering the morning after the crash on stage 4, with the Dutchwoman then responding with strength in a chaotic stage 5 finale to remain firmly in GC contention heading into the mountains.
Grischa reignites the beef? 🥩
With the Tour de France Hommes over and decided officially, it was time for UAE Team Emirates and Visma-Lease a Bike to lay down their nutrition plans and silly time trial helmets until at least the Vuelta a España.
Especially after a Tour de France that saw both teams irritated by the other on multiple occasions, which was then followed by the unfortunate incident where a Visma car braked too suddenly and nearly sent Tadej Pogačar flying through the rear window.
Pogačar brushed this minor debacle off, half-joking that UAE’s rival team had brake-checked him, and Visma were also up for making light of the incident when really they should just be thankful they didn’t do the yellow jersey any serious damage.
Behold, a photo posted on Instagram by Grischa Niermann of his pre-stage 21 team meeting slideshow …
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