'It's so childish' – Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney slams FDJ United-Suez after incident on Tour de France Femmes stage 8

Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon-Sram) accused FDJ United-Suez of blocking her against the barriers in the finale of stage eight of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift as she tried to follow Demi Vollering’s stage-winning attack.

The Polish rider, who took the yellow jersey on Mont Ventoux on Friday, lost her race lead in Nice after she was unable to close the gap to Vollering.

Beyond the seafront finish line, Niewiadoma-Phinney confronted FDJ United-Suez’s French champion Célia Gery, and was captured by Wielerflits saying: “Why did you do that? Why did you close me to the barriers? Was it part of the plan?”

The incident is understood to have happened with around 6.5km to go in the stage, when Vollering launched her first of three accelerations.

Helicopter footage showed Gery pacing on the front of the group, before the camera angle switched, and after a slight broadcasting delay, Vollering appeared on the attack. Although the exact moment was not clearly shown on TV, Niewiadoma-Phinney said she was impeded by the French champion.

“I definitely thought that [FDJ United-Suez] would do something,” the Canyon-Sram rider said. “They always have a plan, so I wasn’t surprised. I was super annoyed at the beginning of the climb because Gery, on purpose, just blocked me to the barriers, where I had to stop pedalling.

“I feel like if they want to compete, they should compete [with] fair play, and not look to close me into the barriers, because I feel like it’s so childish. Honestly, I lost all the respect for them for that.”

Niewiadoma-Phinney’s frustration was clear when she returned to her Canyon-Sram team bus and vented to her sports directors. Four members of team staff then huddled around a telephone to rewatch the incident, with a view of sharing footage with ASO, the race organiser.

“If it was unfair, then there’s a VAR [video assistant referee], there’s a jury, and they will act on it,” Canyon sports director Rolf Aldag explained.

There were ultimately no sanctions in the jury’s post-stage report, which made no mention of the incident.

Asked for their response to Niewiadoma-Phinney’s comments, FDJ United-Suez said they believed there was no wrongdoing on their part.

“I spoke with Célia about it. She didn’t block her, she just went back onto Demi’s wheel,” sports director Lars Boom told The Athletic.

Boom explained the plan was for Gery to follow Vollering’s attack in order to help her leader later in the race. “Blocking is not on my mind,” he said. “What’s on my mind is that Demi needed to enter the corner first with Célia on her wheel. We never talked about blocking. Of course, we want to race fair.”

Stephen Delcourt, Vollering's team manager, echoed the same sentiment. “Demi went first into the corner to take more speed, and Célia just went to the right. There is no fault of Célia,” he said.

“I understand when you are Kasia you search for excuses just after the line, because you never expect to lose yellow today,” Delcourt added. “It doesn’t change the vision that I have for Kasia; she’s a really, really great champion.”

Asked for her view of the incident in her stage winner's press conference, Vollering said: “I cannot say anything about this because apparently it happened behind me, and I don’t have eyes on my back, and neither does Célia – she doesn’t have eyes on her back.”

“I’m sure [Gery] didn’t do it on purpose. I think Kasia also knows deep in her heart that that kind of thing just happens sometimes in racing. It’s the shit part of racing and also the tricky part of racing.”

The Tour de France Femmes will come to a close on Sunday with a final stage starting and finishing in Nice. The route counts four ascents of Col d'Èze (7.7km at 5.9%).

Vollering goes into the final day with an eight-second lead over Niewiadoma-Phinney, and 72 seconds over Marlen Reusser (Movistar).