{"id":34341,"date":"2025-07-30T21:26:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T21:26:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/34341\/"},"modified":"2025-07-30T21:26:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T21:26:10","slug":"what-hes-saying-is-ridiculous-respect-row-flares-up-at-the-tour-de-france-femmes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/34341\/","title":{"rendered":"‘What he’s saying is ridiculous’ – respect row flares up at the Tour de France Femmes"},"content":{"rendered":"

After his GC leader crashed in a heap on the floor<\/a>, the frustration was clear in Stephen Delcourt\u2019s voice. \u201cThere\u2019s a real lack of respect in the peloton,\u201d the FDJ-SUEZ<\/a> manager told the media. \u201cToday it\u2019s the fault of the riders.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pile-up came on a tight, right-hand bend. Barrelling towards a sprint finish on stage three of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift<\/a>, the teams grappled against each other to take the corner first. Then came a touching of wheels, and Demi Vollering<\/a>, caught up in the melee, was one of more than ten riders who hit the ground.<\/p>\n

Battered and dazed, the Dutchwoman suffered neck and knee pain, and was checked twice for concussion. She would later be cleared to continue<\/a> the race, but Delcourt feared otherwise at the time.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWhat we saw today is the individual behaviour of someone who takes too much of a risk in a corner, and could destroy Vollering\u2019s Tour de France,\u201d the FDJ-SUEZ manager said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not normal the attitude of many teams and many riders. They are disrespectful. We lost the respect in the last year in men\u2019s and women\u2019s cycling. How is it possible everybody wants to play with their life like this?\u201d<\/p>\n

Delcourt\u2019s comments have since been the subject of tension between teams at the Tour de France Femmes. Is there really no more respect in the peloton? Visma-Lease a Bike<\/a> sports director Jos van Emden hit back the claim.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat he\u2019s saying is completely ridiculous,\u201d Van Emden told De Telegraaf and Het Nieuwsblad, asked about Delcourt’s comments. \u201cHe seems to want a peloton of eight riders with Demi in it, riding in a golden cage. Come on, this is the sport, isn\u2019t it? Nothing happened that shouldn\u2019t have. He\u2019s just been influenced by Demi, by her dramatic behaviour.<\/p>\n

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\u201cDelcourt saying people\u2019s lives are being put at risk \u2013 that\u2019s just not true. That\u2019s not reality. If you think that, maybe you should do another sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

Delcourt and Van Emden were seen having a heated discussion<\/a> among the team buses ahead of Wednesday\u2019s fifth stage. Speaking to the French press, Delcourt clarified that his initial frustration wasn\u2019t only in reference to Vollering\u2019s crash, but safety in general in the peloton.<\/p>\n

For other team directors, though, the fighting for position at this year’s Tour has brought nothing unruly or out of the ordinary. \u201cEveryone has the same right to be there. It\u2019s not that some riders have bigger rights or less rights,\u201d Canyon<\/a>-SRAM zondacrypto sports director Adam Szab\u00f3 told TNT Sports.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think, if you have a strong team and you can position your team well, or your protected leader well, then it\u2019s up to the strength of the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marianne Vos<\/a>, who has been in the peloton for 20 years, shared a similar opinion.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a sport where you have to fight for position,\u201d the Visma-Lease a Bike rider and current yellow jersey wearer said. \u201cI don\u2019t think maybe it\u2019s not about respect, but it\u2019s about everybody fighting for every centimetre.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately, things can happen like [the crash on stage two]. Of course, it\u2019s the riders that fight for the position that make it dangerous, but it\u2019s not really something that\u2019s about respect.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the race now heads for the mountains, the simmering tension between the GC teams will start to boil on the road. The war of words between bosses looks to be over. “Let’s let the performances on the road do the talking,” Delcourt said.<\/p>\n

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Tour de France Femmes<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After his GC leader crashed in a heap on the floor, the frustration was clear in Stephen Delcourt\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":34342,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-34341","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34341","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34341"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34341\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34341"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34341"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34341"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}