‘Not bothered’ – Why ‘no one wanted to race’ on day that provided ‘fantastic entertainment’ at Tour de France Femmes

It had been billed as a blockbuster event with the presence of unpaved roads along the tough route to Bar-sur-Aube expected to blow the general classification wide open.

Blythe could not understand why a stage that had promised so much had been engulfed in negativity from a general classification perspective.

“The GC riders were just so negative,” began Blythe.

“No one wanted to race. It was just stop-start, stop-start.

“I think everyone was just so stressed about the gravel sections that when they got off them, it was like, ‘right we’ve done that now, so we’re not bothered about [racing]’.

“I mean, [Annemiek] Van Vleuten had a puncture, and was on a spare bike, [Elisa] Longo Borghini was on [Elisa] Balsamo’s bike, but no one took the opportunity to put them even further out the back.

“They’re all just concentrated on being safe in that front group. Balsamo’s out the back, Longo Borghini’s out the back, Van Vleuten’s out the back – when that happens, you’ve just got to drop the hammer and go and put time into them

“But it just never ever happened.”

However, the nature of the stage, with the parcours liable to riders suffering multiple mechanicals, meant there was a reluctance to put time into rivals, said Dani Christmas.

“When you look at the parcours of today’s race,” began Christmas, “the only way you’re going to be able to distance [your rivals] is taking advantage of when they’ve had a mechanical.

“I don’t think anyone would want to necessarily win the race because someone’s had a puncture and then they just full gas it.

“I don’t think anyone wants this Tour de France Femmes to be decided because of a mechanical.

Dani Rowe added that the stage design produced great entertainment, but she questioned the merits of a gravel stage in a eight-stage race.

“There are question marks over a stage like today,” added Rowe.

“We’ve got so much entertainment, and it was fantastic to watch.

“But like Dani said, do we want to get to the end of the tour and say, ‘okay, this GC was decided on Stage 4, because Van Vleuten lost three minutes due to a puncture’.”

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