Crashes at Tour de France Femmes: "unrest in the convoy" and "nervousness"
DPA
· 27.07.2022
Torn racing shorts, racing bikes on the ground, blood on elbows and knees: In its first few days, the women's Tour de France provides frightening images of crashes that cycling fans are also familiar with from the men's Tour.
13 of the 144 women who started the Tour of France had to drop out in the first three days. Co-favourite Marta Cavalli from Italy and Laura Süßemilch did not even make it to the finish line of their respective stages.
Serious injuries
Their falls had serious consequences: Cavalli suffered a traumatic brain injury, Süßemilch broke two vertebrae and was taken to hospital. Other riders, such as the Slovenian Urska Pintar, fought their way to the finish with pain and bloody scratches, but missed the time limit.
There are many reasons for the accidents. "The strong wind certainly played a role, as did the battles for position in the field. Everyone wanted to be at the front," said Marianne Vos, who took the yellow jersey on the second stage. The excitement of taking part in the first women's Tour de France this century also appears to be a factor. "Everyone is a bit extra motivated," Swiss rider Marlen Reusser told the dpa.
Mistakes by the drivers?
However, the Olympic silver medallist and runner-up in the time trial also blames the riding mistakes of some of her female colleagues. "There are also riders at the start who make you wonder why they are here. That makes the field very heterogeneous," said Reusser.
In addition to the 14 WorldTour teams and the three best racing teams in the Continental category, seven teams have been invited via wild cards. "It's actually enough if you have one, two or three riders who don't quite master it or take too many risks to cause avoidable crashes," said Reusser.
Nervousness in the teams
A fall also prevented the German Classics specialist Liane Lippert was able to intervene in the battle for the stage win on stage 3. She fell because she could no longer avoid the Dutch rider Demi Vollering, who had crashed. "It's a great pity. I had good legs, wasn't in big trouble on the climb and was always in control," said Lippert. But then came the crash. At least the rider from Friedrichshafen did not suffer any serious injuries.
Ronny Lauke, head of the German racing team Canyon SRAM, sees one reason for the unrest in the peloton in the weak nerves of some of his colleagues. "You can already see the unrest in the convoy of support vehicles. Some leave their position again and again and then run around in front of you. And this nervousness, which some team managers and sports directors bring with them and which is also really visible, is then transferred to the riders," said Lauke.
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