{"id":522273,"date":"2026-03-08T09:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T09:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/522273\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T09:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T09:52:09","slug":"i-dont-know-how-that-could-have-happened-pauline-ferrand-prevot-and-demi-vollering-among-top-riders-sent-off-course-at-strade-bianche","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/522273\/","title":{"rendered":"‘I don’t know how that could have happened’: Pauline Ferrand-Prevot and Demi Vollering among top riders sent off-course at Strade Bianche"},"content":{"rendered":"

The finish to Saturday\u2019s Strade Bianche was stunning, a showdown for the ages on the cobbled climb into Sienna that saw Magdeleine Valli\u00e8res Mill nearly podium on her way to Canada\u2019s best-ever finish in the race<\/a>. But several other pre-race favourites were left wondering what could have been when a motor cycle led them off course late in the race.<\/p>\n

After some mechanical misfortune, both Demi Vollering, a past winner in Sienna<\/a>, and Pauline Ferrand-Prevot were left chasing. Less than a minute behind the leaders, and in a high-octane group that included\u00a0Anna van der Breggen, Lotte Kopecky, and Kim Le Court, there was a solid chance the race would come back together before the wall of Sienna.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how that could have happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Any chance of catching the leaders evaporated when the group followed a motorcycle onto a gravel section, and off the race course. Instead of following the course left at an unsigned intersection, the bike went straight and onto gravel. It took several hundred metres before anyone realised what had happened.<\/p>\n

After a hectic moment, and a near collision as the group reversed directions, the chase group returned to the course. But the leaders? They were long gone. A gap that was under a minute had become over three.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know how this could have happened,\u201d reigning Tour de France winner Pauline Ferrand-Prevot told Eurosport after the race. \u201cThere was a lot of dust. I saw the bike go right, the riders turned around two hundred meters in. I can\u2019t say anything more about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI had no idea if the leading group had ridden correctly. I didn\u2019t know anything,\u201d Ferrand-Prevot said immediately post race. \u201cI still don\u2019t, actually. I\u2019m curious to see what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

PFP was among the leaders until a dropped chain forced her to wait for mechanical assistance. \u201cIt was completely jammed. I had no choice but to wait for the team car,\u201d the Visma-Lease a Bike rider said of how she ended up in the chase, adding \u201cI felt good until the misfortune. But oh well, next time!\u201d<\/p>\n

Vollering has a good day \u2013 and maybe a party \u2013 despite mis-direction<\/p>\n

Another pre-race favourite to be mis-directed was past Strade<\/a> winner, Demi Vollering. While the re-route left the Dutch star watching her chances of winning go up in a cloud of white dust, a victory by FDJ-Suez teammate\u00a0Elise Chabbey gave Vollering reason to cheer as she crossed the line.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so proud of them. They raced absolutely perfectly,\u201d a beaming Vollering said of Chabbey and Franziska Koch, the FDJ rider in third, to Eurosport after the finish. FDJ\u2019s pre-race favourite was left chasing by an untimely flat tire before joining the unplanned detour onto some extra gravel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought I could still get back, but then they misdirected us. Everyone knew right then that it was over,\u201d Vollering recounted. \u201cIt\u2019s a shame for me, but the messages on my earpieces made me very happy.\u201d<\/p>\n

A teammate winning certainly makes a lost opportunity easier to take in stride. Vollering already seemed focused on sorting out the details of the celebration, not what happened on course.<\/p>\n

\u201cTonight we\u2019re going to Pisa, tomorrow we have a very early flight to Tenerife for a training camp. Maybe we\u2019ll party all night!\u201d Vollering said with a laugh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The finish to Saturday\u2019s Strade Bianche was stunning, a showdown for the ages on the cobbled climb into…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":522274,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[205499,205411,49,48,635,82,141378],"class_list":["post-522273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-2026-strade-bianche","tag-2026-strade-bianche-donne","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-strade-bianche"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=522273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/522273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/522274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=522273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=522273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=522273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}