Yellow jersey holder Demi Vollering was involved in a high-speed crash on stage five of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift on Thursday, being distanced as a result.
The incident, which happened at about 6.3km to go meant that Vollering of SD Worx-Protime lost time on general classification, and the overall lead. Her teammate, Blanka Vas, won the stage, as Vollering dropped to ninth on GC.
A touch of wheels on a sweeping corner caused the crash. Vollering was back to her feet quickly, but took time to get back on her bike.
Among the others to hit the deck were British champion Pfeiffer Georgi (dsm-firmenich PostNL), queen of the mountains Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck), Anna Henderson (Visma-Lease a Bike), Sofia Bertizzolo (UAE Team ADQ) and Ruby Roseman-Gannon (Liv AlUla Jayco).
Vollering was able to remount and finish the stage, but lost 1:46 to the stage winner, and lost the yellow jersey to Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) who finished second on the stage. It appeared to take time for teammates to drop back and support the Dutchwoman, with Vas explaining later that her radio was not working. Mischa Bredewold, however, did drop back to help.
Bredewold told Eurosport TV that she hadn't seen the crash. "I was riding on the front of the bunch...[It's] such a rollercoaster because I’m really happy for Blanka to win, but for Demi, it’s really shit. She went full gas on the climb so I think she limited her time loss, but it’s not nice.
"I stopped, I waited, but I heard so much, and I didn’t hear she crashed until they said again. I almost stopped to wait for her. I pulled on the flat part for her. It’s part of the Tour; it’s not nice for her.
"I saw some open skin but it didn’t look too serious."
"Losing the yellow jersey in this way is not nice," added SD Worx sport Director Danny Stam. "If you get beaten and dropped it’s different. This is bittersweet.
"The most important thing is seeing how Demi feels and how the rest of the team feels. Tomorrow is not a day for us, but we still have two really hard days [to come]."
Georgi looked to be among the worst affected, and has left the Tour as a result, dsm confirmed in a post in social media.
More to follow...
