Despite winning the stage with Blanka Vas, SD Worx-Protime's disaster day played out in the final 6.3km of stage 5 at the Tour de France Femmes , with a dangerous roundabout, radios not working and their leader Demi Vollering hitting the deck at high speed all amounting to a loss of the yellow jersey.
For more than 90% of the stage heading out of Belgium and into France for the first time during this year's race, Vollering and SD Worx-Protime would have been pleased with their progress, allowing others to chase down the key three-rider break, all while keeping Vollering out of trouble.
However, everything unravelled in the final 7km run for home into Amnéville after Vollering crashed at high speed onto her left side and struggled to remount her bike before eventually ending the day 1:19 down on new race leader Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM). The incident occurred around a sharp bend in the road that they couldn't see, according to Vollering's teammate Mischa Bredewold, who was critical of the course design.
"This roundabout was very dangerous and with all respect for the organisation, I am not happy with that one because of the corner after the roundabout," Bredewold told reporters including Cyclingnews at the finish.
"We were going 65[kph] or something. There's no way we could see it and they did not sign that it was such a tight corner. I mean, I was riding on the front and I even almost crashed. So that's tricky."
After an initial wave of chaos, the crash itself, a second soon followed for SD Worx-Protime, with Vollering starting her dogged fight to limit her losses alone until Bredewold found out it was the yellow jersey who'd come down and slowed down to offer assistance.
"No, I was riding on the front of the bunch, doing my lead-out for Lorena. So I did not see or hear the crash actually," said Bredewold of the moments following the crash.
"It was really confusing. And it's so short in the finish that it's useless to drop back with six girls. You would not have a benefit from that," explained Bredewold of why the team didn't all immediately stop to aid Vollering.
"Once I heard that Demi had crashed, which for us it took a while before I understood it was her that was crashed, I dropped back and it was very difficult to see where she was riding. I didn't know if she was in a group or alone so I really had to pay attention so that she did not come past me. I think in the end, it was good that I could pull."
Radios fail as the chaos continues
Vas had a similarly confusing run to her biggest career victory, with Vollering's crash unknown to her and technology failing on her resulting in one option - go for the stage win.
"This was not the plan today, we wanted to sprint with Lorena [Wiebes]. This crash happened in the final so I was the only one who was in front. But I'm super happy with my victory, this is my biggest one," said Vas in her post-race press conference, before revealing she was completely in the dark about the situation.
"My radio was not working so I didn't know what happened, I just saw nobody was there anymore from the team so I did not know there was a crash."
Sports manager Danny Stam also confirmed that amid the chaos and delayed relaying of information in the convoy, SD Worx-Protime were both unaware that Vollering had gone down and that Vas was in the group fighting for victory until the final kilometre.
"No, they didn't [know]. Then they should stop because we didn't hear in the radio also in the radio that she was down," said Stam, who agreed with Bredewold that sending everyone back would be pointless.
"I don't think it makes such a difference anymore to let the whole group wait anymore, because it's last four, five kilometres.
"It's not so difficult to communicate but you must understand, that when the crash is there before the girls know and they are 1.5km further, then it takes three minutes before you are there. I think the crash was at 5.5km to go and Mischa arrives at 3.5km to go, I think that's pretty quick still."
Stam also didn't have any qualms with Canyon SRAM pacing in the final few kilometres with Chloé Dygert to extend their time gain on Vollering, admitting that it was just racing and he didn't think they should have done anything else.
"It's a race eh? What should I say? I don't know if they noticed really that Demi was in the crash. It is a final so, everybody goes for themselves and I think that's pretty normal," said Stam of the German side.
"When it's 50km [to go], maybe you can expect it but not 4km. From me, no hard feelings.
"Losing the yellow jersey in this kind of way is not nice. If you get beaten and you get dropped, then it is a different way. But this is bittersweet."
While the gap is now at 1:19, losing yellow does bring some small good to SD Worx-Protime, with Vollering no longer required to do as much post-stage media or the press conference and the team not being looked at to control as often. With three stages to go and Vollering's best terrain incoming, there was perhaps a silver lining in her hitting the tarmac.
"Losing the yellow jersey might not even be such a bad thing, we were all like 'It's pretty early to have all the control' and I think Demi will be a bit sad about it but I don't think losing the yellow jersey now is the biggest problem now," said the European Champion.
"We just have to get that minute back but I'm also not too worried about that."
"I have faith she can come back, she's very strong and we will do everything to get back the yellow jersey," agreed Vas.
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