Niewiadoma Blasts Vollering’s Team for Alleged Dirty Tactics After Losing Yellow

Overnight race leader Kasia Niewiadoma has blasted the FDJ United – Suez team of Demi Vollering after losing the yellow jersey, calling their conduct childish.

She lost out to Vollering when the Dutch rider put in a huge attack on the day’s final climb, ending Saturday’s stage 8 17 seconds back and dropping to eight seconds behind as a result of the time bonus.

“I definitely thought that they would do something. They always have a plan, so I wasn’t surprised.”

What was surprising, though, was the allegation that some improper behaviour may have been involved.

“I was super annoyed at the beginning of the climb because [Celia] Géry on purpose just blocked me to the barriers where I had to stop pedalling,” she claimed.

“I feel like…if they want to compete, they should compete fair play and not look for me to close me in the barriers because I feel like it’s so childish.

“Honestly, I lost all the respect for them for that.”

Footage filmed by Wielerflits showed Niewiadoma then challenging French champion Géry over the incident.

“Why did you do it? Why did you close me to barriers? Was it part of the plan?” she asked.

Géry did not respond and moved away.

Footage of the incident did appear to show Géry coming close to Niewiadoma on a corner, with the latter losing ground to an attacking Vollering as a result. It is not clear from the video how intentional it was. There was no penalty indicated in the jury report afterwards.

Niewiadoma won the race in 2024, defeating the previous year’s winner Vollering. She is still within range to reclaim yellow, with a tough final stage in Nice on Sunday seeing the riders tackle the Col d’Eze four times.

However the eight second deficit will make things difficult.

“We have still the same goal, right? Like go get the yellow jersey,” she said. “But yeah, we need to talk with the team and evaluate what’s the plan now.”