After a good night’s sleep, Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney has not changed her mind about what transpired in the fraught moments when Demi Vollering launched the attack at a key moment of stage 8 of the Tour de France Femmes on Saturday.
Niewiadoma-Phinney claimed that Vollering’s FDJ United-Suez teammate Célia Gery intentionally edged her toward the kerb on a fast left-hand turn, forcing her to stop pedaling, then re-accelerate around her just as Vollering began to open a gap.
A new angle of the near-clash between Gery and Niewiadoma-Phinney was shown on French television last night, and appeared to support the Polish rider’s assertions.
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Gery had been leading out Vollering into a brutally steep section of the Chemin de l’Arieta and, rather than pull off and sit up, she re-accelerated and closed down Niewiadoma-Phinney’s line, preventing her from being able to accelerate to follow Vollering’s attack.
The UCI jury has not yet imposed any penalties on Gery as a result of the incident, and Vollering defended Gery, insisting, “I’m sure she didn’t do it on purpose” and “that kind of thing just happens sometimes in racing”.
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Niewiadoma-Phinney reiterated before Sunday’s final stage in Nice that she doesn’t agree with that assessment.
“I was in the race, and I know how it feels, and I’ve been racing for years, you know,” Niewiadoma-Phinney said. “I expressed my opinion. I know what’s right, let’s say, and what’s not maybe necessarily right. It’s not that I make things up, and I think I expressed what I had, and nothing has changed since that.”
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When asked if she had heard from Gery or any of the FDJ United-Suez directors, Niewiadoma-Phinney said she hadn’t, “but also it’s also not about creating drama. I know that certain things maybe feed the media, and like they make it bigger than it is.
“The biggest I’ll take from it is that Demi was extremely strong. She is an extremely strong competitor for me, and to fight against her, it’s also a pleasure because we make each other stronger. So I’m not taking anything out of her, but I just want a fair fight with her, fair and square.”
The final short but demanding stage in Nice takes riders over the Col d’Èze four times, the last coming with 15.4km to go, so there will be plenty of opportunity for Niewiadoma-Phinney to try to exact some revenge, but she said that’s not her intention.
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“Oh, no, no, no. I’m… honestly, like people that know me, they know that I’m not revengeful and they know that I don’t like to have beef with anyone, so if I act certain ways, it’s because I have reasons for it.”
Vollering spoke separately to Eurosport about the incident, saying, “I have a lot of respect for Kasia. I was a bit disappointed when I saw her interview yesterday directly after the finish line because she really attacked my teammate, and I think it’s not so fair to do that so high in emotions.”
She then referenced the 2024 Tour de France Femmes when Niewiadoma’s team kept riding after Vollering crashed on stage 5 while wearing the maillot jaune.
“I didn’t forget about what she did when I was on the ground two years ago, so if she’s speaking about fair play, then I think she is not the one that can really say something about that.
“I don’t blame her. In the end, we always forget that we are still human and a person next to the bike. Célia is still so young, and she gets so much shit over her now and it’s really not fair in my eyes. She is giving her all and we need to protect her. She’s so young and she’s so talented. I find it really sad that we attack each other like this.”
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