Tour de France Femmes 2024 (August 12th-18th)

[Samu Cuenca]

FDJ learnt their lesson when they threw away Brown's 2022 TOB when they got too greedy on the last stage and ELB did the miracle bunch sprint. They now ride cohesively as a team and will give Vollering full support.

We'll see about that. They definitely need someone to replace Brown.

 

[Skalman]

How many missed the time limit ?

 

[Izzyeviel]

Good news for Demi, she won todays combativity award!

 

[JR1012]

Impressive Tour by Brand, finishing 8th place in GC.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

How many missed the time limit ?

Many riders abandoned before or during the stage, so I'm not sure any were OTL.

 

[Mina.S]

As an Australian I’m Really happy for Gigante! Hopefully next year AG can spent some money sending her and Zigart to get some training on how not to hang off the back is the peloton and descend better! Would make a big difference.


Liv Jayco’s poor team choice leaves a lot to be desired but, top rider 21st and it’s not even their GC leader.

 

[Sciatic]

It was an amazing stage, because every moving part in the story had positives and negatives; whether you like or dislike the riders, you can't help but admire the guts and grinta it took for Kasia to hold on from a position that looked totally doomed; you can't help but feel bad for Demi to fall short by so little after being put in a position she didn't deserve to be in - even if during her pursuit of rectifying the unfair disadvantage she'd been given, she would sacrifice a lot of that goodwill with her actions on the way - only for Rooijakkers, the plucky underdog, to sacrifice a lot of her own goodwill in response. No matter what outcome it gave, there would be somebody you'd feel happy for and somebody you felt sorry for. It was mano a mano, but it wasn't mano a mano. The teams meant nothing to the outcome, but they completely defined the outcome. So many stories all intertwined, and all being resolved at once, but changing as to the expected outcome several times on the way.

It was a challenging stage to watch because I was simultaneously rooting for both main protagonists to come out on top.

 

[awavey]

We'll see about that. They definitely need someone to replace Brown.

My concern would be they weren't really contending for GC during this race, and then Muzic puts it in 4th today and they're like this is great etc, objectives met, job done.

Demi isn't going to be happy with 4th, and even though their riders and team tactics aren't going to be taking each other out, they don't feel strong enough to push her up the GC rankings, so she's back working alone again to get wins inspite of the team. And she has to beat a Kopecky led SDWorx too.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Imagine if Rooijakkers could descent. Then she would have been able to follow Kerbaol the other day and possibly won the race.

 

[Oldermanish]

And wasn’t it Dygert who pulled her group after Demi crashed? To gain as much as possible.

This is definitely an Asterix Tour; no matter how you feel about Vollering. To have a teammate who saw her down continue to contest the finish rather than even make a token effort at assistance is career defining IMO. Add the team management's total malfeasance and the absolute lack of sportsmanship shown by all, including fan favorite Kasia it makes the results unacceptable.
I admittedly don't know enough about the Womens' peloton personalities to understand loyalties but I can't see how anyone could get much satisfaction knowing the loss occurred on stage 5, not on the Alpe.

 

[awavey]

This is definitely an Asterix Tour; no matter how you feel about Vollering. To have a teammate who saw her down continue to contest the finish rather than even make a token effort at assistance is career defining IMO. Add the team management's total malfeasance and the absolute lack of sportsmanship shown by all, including fan favorite Kasia it makes the results unacceptable.
I admittedly don't know enough about the Womens' peloton personalities to understand loyalties but I can't see how anyone could get much satisfaction knowing the loss occurred on stage 5, not on the Alpe.

As Demi said "it's a s*** way to lose time"

 

[Oldermanish]

As Demi said "it's a s*** way to lose time"

a sh*t way to lose the TOUR!

 

[Samu Cuenca]

My concern would be they weren't really contending for GC during this race, and then Muzic puts it in 4th today and they're like this is great etc, objectives met, job done.

Demi isn't going to be happy with 4th, and even though their riders and team tactics aren't going to be taking each other out, they don't feel strong enough to push her up the GC rankings, so she's back working alone again to get wins inspite of the team. And she has to beat a Kopecky led SDWorx too.

They were unlucky with Brown's puncure in the ITT and CUL's crash on the Liège stage. I think they've done a decent job in this race. They had probably dreamed of a podium, but Rooijakkers was too strong.

With Vollering, Muzic and Labous, they'll have the riders to control races, but they might also end up attacking each other for the victories.

 

[Oldermanish]

Good news for Demi, she won todays combativity award!

And her name will be on the wall of le Alpe' forever. Hope all of the folks that took advantage of her crash see that Vollering name plaque every time they're suffering. It actually means more than the Yellow in the historical sense.

 

[Izzyeviel]

This is definitely an Asterix Tour; no matter how you feel about Vollering. To have a teammate who saw her down continue to contest the finish rather than even make a token effort at assistance is career defining IMO. Add the team management's total malfeasance and the absolute lack of sportsmanship shown by all, including fan favorite Kasia it makes the results unacceptable.
I admittedly don't know enough about the Womens' peloton personalities to understand loyalties but I can't see how anyone could get much satisfaction knowing the loss occurred on stage 5, not on the Alpe.

Simple. She Lost by four seconds. She had her crash & was on her feet after 10 seconds. It took another 70 seconds before she started cycling again.

 

[awavey]

You against You.

I note she didnt tag SDWorx

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[MLKarlos]

Wow that’s was so fun to watch today. Great promotion for women cycling in my eyes. Just forget tactical mistakes and the would have crash Blabla for a second. It was just thrilling to see three athletes battle as much as they could

 

[awavey]

Meanwhile in the SDworx account with the same photo, they're absolutely getting owned in the comments 🤣

 

[Valv.Piti]

"Thanks for the tremendous support" to the fans, and thanks for the absolutely atrocious support SD Worx, AVDB and Lorena Wiebes. Thats more like it

 

[dobrien]

Wow that’s was so fun to watch today. Great promotion for women cycling in my eyes. Just forget tactical mistakes and the would have crash Blabla for a second. It was just thrilling to see three athletes battle as much as they could

No question about it, that was as riveting a battle as you're ever likely to see in ANY bike race, men's or women's. Pure, unadulterated, suffer-fest.

 

[Mayomaniac]

Nice win for Demi, what was she supposed to do, thank the team and Lolrena after that tactical fail?
Also, who the f*** is Valentina Cavallar and since when can she climb like that?

 

[awavey]

"Thanks for the tremendous support" to the fans, and thanks for the absolutely atrocious support SD Worx, AVDB and Lorena Wiebes. Thats more like it

It's a pointed message for sure as was that whole finish line "celebrating" thing. I think she knew it wasn't enough even then.

I've only seen Niamh console her in footage so far post finish, Marjerus is posting memes on twitter about Guarischi handing her the gilet...and Marjerus rarely posts on twitter.

 

[Samu Cuenca]

Nice win for Demi, what was she supposed to do, thank the team and Lolrena after that tactical fail?
Also, who the f*** is Valentina Cavallar and since when can she climb like that?

I have done my best to hype her up before this stage, but like most people, I didn't know who she was four months ago.

 

[awavey]

Blast off earlier on Glandon tbh, then don't wait for Rooijakkers on descent.

It's complicated though because so many other riders were in a position to move up significantly in GC, Kasia was always going to find a group to help keep her in contact, Brands effort was all about getting into the top 10 which helped Kasia massively.

If SDWorx were functional as a "team" they'd have left a rider in that group spoiling turns to defend the breakaway.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Well can't say straight away but I think that in women's racing everything tactically is not possible, because teams sometimes don't have legs to do all tactical case by case scenarios that your typical above median GT WT men's team can.

SD Works is kinda UAE of women's racing at the moment but still. Mistake that they made was not that easy to bring back.

Sometimes teams don't have legs to deal with all tactical case by case scenarios, but if any team has the firepower to look after a GT favourite and defending champion, it's SD Worx, they just committed an absolute dereliction of duty.

As an Australian I’m Really happy for Gigante! Hopefully next year AG can spent some money sending her and Zigart to get some training on how not to hang off the back is the peloton and descend better! Would make a big difference.


Liv Jayco’s poor team choice leaves a lot to be desired but, top rider 21st and it’s not even their GC leader.

To be fair though, they need to just be more consistent and better protected. Pauliena Rooijakkers hangs off the back of the péloton and can't descend, and she just finished 4th in the Giro d'Italia and 3rd in the Tour de France.

This is definitely an Asterix Tour; no matter how you feel about Vollering. To have a teammate who saw her down continue to contest the finish rather than even make a token effort at assistance is career defining IMO. Add the team management's total malfeasance and the absolute lack of sportsmanship shown by all, including fan favorite Kasia it makes the results unacceptable.
I admittedly don't know enough about the Womens' peloton personalities to understand loyalties but I can't see how anyone could get much satisfaction knowing the loss occurred on stage 5, not on the Alpe.

Career defining for Vollering? Or career defining for Wiebes? I think her celebrating too soon and losing Amstel Gold after SD Worx somehow got Vollering and Kopecky to both slave their guts out for her ungrateful hide in a race that better suited them was her defining moment. That Gunnewijk had Vollering working for Wiebes in Paris only for this fiasco to unfold a couple of weeks later is just putting the boot in.

For added insult to injury, she didn't even win the maillot vert to even give a modicum of justification for her actions.

Nice win for Demi, what was she supposed to do, thank the team and Lolrena after that tactical fail?
Also, who the f*** is Valentina Cavallar and since when can she climb like that?

An ex-rower who finished 2nd on the Col d'Aubisque in the Tour des Pyrénées a couple of months ago. It seems like she might be a bit like 2016-vintage Anna Kiesenhofer at the moment, lacking in pack skills or development in cycling from that perspective, but with all the physical tools necessary, so she comes to the fore on stages like this where it's far more mano a mano and far less about placement in the bunch and team tactics and so on.