Vollering crash puts Tour de France Femmes crown in jeopardy as Vas shines | Tour de France Femmes

Demi Vollering's hopes of a second consecutive victory in the Tour de France Femmes suffered a severe and painful setback after the defending champion crashed at high speed in the final moments of stage five from Bastogne to Amnéville in the Moselle region.

The SD Worx Protime team leader was just driving down the exit of a roundabout towards Amnéville when around a dozen riders crashed around her, including Briton Pfeiffer Georgi, riding for DSM-Firmenich PostNL.

Vollering appeared to land on her back and was able to continue to the finish after a break. But by then it was too late and her three closest competitors in the overall ranking – Puck Pieterse of Fenix-Deceuninck, Kasia Niewiadoma of Canyon SRAM and Kristen Faulkner, who rode for EF-Oatly-Cannondale – had already raced to the finish.

Vollering's 22-second overall lead over fellow Dutchwoman Pieterse quickly evaporated in the warm afternoon air. Even worse for Vollering was that Niewiadoma, third overall in the 2022 and 2023 Tour Femmes and one of her strongest competitors in the high mountains, sprinted across the finish line in second place to take the overall lead.

Asked what she said to Vollering after the stage, Niewiadoma said she “just wanted to check on her to make sure she was OK.” She added: “Crashes are not a part of racing that we like, but they are part of racing. We are all very loyal to each other, we all have the same goal, fighting for the wins, but you don't wish that on your opponents.”

The 29-year-old said she asked “out of politeness to make sure she was OK and not too hurt. I think her bottom is scratched.” Vollering is now ninth overall, 1 minute 19 seconds behind Niewiadoma. The Polish rider has been close to a major success in the Tour de France Femmes in the past, finishing second behind Vollering on the summit of the Col du Tourmalet, the decisive stage of last year's race.

“To be honest, I think 1:19 is nothing in the mountains,” said the Pole about her narrow lead over Vollering.

But there are many indications that the defending champion now faces a tough fight, as ten different teams are represented in the top 10 in the overall standings.

Vollering could actually use a lot more support from her teammates than she got in the final kilometers after the crash, when she was on her own. SD Worx Protime riders were ahead of her and others were drifting behind her, but she was stuck alone in the middle.

As she tried to close the gap, her teammate Blanka Vas, fourth in the Olympic road race, was ahead of her and sprinted to the stage win, marking the first Hungarian success in the Tour de France Femmes.

“My radio wasn't working, so I didn't know what had happened,” said Vas. “I just saw that no one from the team was there anymore. I didn't know there was an accident. I have mixed feelings because we lost yellow, the accident happened and I was the only one in front. But this is my biggest victory.”

But Vas added that she had confidence in Vollering's fighting spirit. “She is very strong,” she said. “We will do everything to get the yellow jersey back.”

Niewiadoma may not be the favourite, but she now has pole position as the race heads through the Vosges towards the Doubs and Jura. The Pole admitted, however, that she had known about the leader's crash.

“I actually heard an accident,” she said. “At that moment the racing instinct kicked in and we just wanted to make it to the final. Our main goal was to win the stage and then we found out everything that had happened. It's not something we celebrate or are proud of, but unfortunately it's also part of racing.”

Vollering seemed to have the race under control until the fateful roundabout. The extent of the defending champion's injuries was unclear, but she could still have problems as the Tour's toughest mountain stages await her on Saturday and Sunday.