On the floor, stage 2 of the Tour de Romandie Féminin was an amazing day for SD Worx-Protime: They took a 1-2 as Demi Vollering gained the stage forward of Lotte Kopecky who’s the brand new total chief going into Sunday’s remaining stage. Nonetheless, the duty of managing the 2 stars’ race packages and characters is changing into more durable and more durable with solely months left till Vollering leaves the workforce.
“I don’t know. It’s a wierd scenario as a result of I’ll go away the workforce, so I hope my workforce shall be impartial on this. We are going to see tomorrow,” Vollering stated when requested in regards to the plans for stage 3. She then requested the interviewer for affirmation that Kopecky was forward of her in GC earlier than persevering with: “Most likely they may go for her.”
In such a scenario, riders often use the pronoun “we” to confer with the workforce. It’s potential, even seemingly, that Vollering was referring to the game administrators, Danny Stam and Anna van der Breggen, who make the selections on workforce ways, however the poignant phrasing however raised eyebrows.
When different groups get a 1-2, their riders will usually cross the end line celebrating collectively, however Vollering and Kopecky sprinted in opposition to one another for the victory – and never for the primary time. Within the 2023 Strade Bianche, they fought for victory amongst themselves on the final 400 metres within the slim streets of Siena after catching and dropping Kristen Faulkner. Then as now, Vollering gained the dash.
Vollering’s departure on the finish of 2024 was introduced in the course of the spring season, and within the stage races that adopted, the workforce was criticised for not supporting their GC chief in addition to they may have, each within the Vuelta Femenina (which Vollering gained) and the Tour de France Femmes (which Vollering misplaced by 4 seconds after shedding time after a stage 5 crash).
“Our plan was to attract the opposite groups out and allow them to attempt to drop us. They tried to try this, however they did not handle to drop us. In the long run, 5 riders remained, three of them from our workforce. Niamh Fisher-Black was the primary to assault, she tried once more, then Realini took the initiative. Demi countered that assault, then Lotte fought her method again. In the long run, Lotte and Demi have been the one ones left,” Stam defined the plan the workforce had laid earlier than the stage.
The Tour de Romandie Féminin is likely one of the races the place the UCI is testing how races do if groups aren’t allowed to make use of radio communication between the riders and the game administrators. This meant that no resolution may very well be made within the workforce automobile on who ought to win the stage.
As Vollering remarked, two riders from the identical workforce sprinting in opposition to one another will deliver the fairest end result, however mixed with previous incidents, it does paint an image of a soon-to-end relationship that might not be adversarial as such however isn’t that amicable anymore both.
