Blanka Vas (SD Worx-Protime) sprinted to her greatest profession win but on stage 5 of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift on Thursday, however her celebration was considerably subdued, overshadowed by considerations for race chief Demi Vollering.
The race favorite was snarled in a crash at simply 6.3 kilometres to go, hitting the deck onerous and taking a while to evaluate herself earlier than she may proceed.
The high-speed crash occurred resulting from an unmarked tight flip after a roundabout, which noticed wheels overlapping and resulted in fairly a pile-up. Among the many fallen have been British champion Pfeiffer Georgi (dsm-Firmenich PostNL), who was unable to proceed with a damaged collarbone, Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck) within the polka dot jersey, Sofia Bertizzolo (UAE Group ADQ), Anna Henderson (Visma-Lease a Bike), and Ruby Roseman-Gannon (Liv AlUla Jayco). The latter two nonetheless sporting indicators from crashes in earlier phases.
Vollering received again up however appeared visibly in ache as she remounted her bike and ultimately crossed the road with a grimace, 1:47 after her teammate Vas.
The incident precipitated Vollering to slide all the way down to ninth within the Normal Classification, dropping her yellow jersey to Kasia Niewiadoma, who completed second for the second day in a row.
SD Worx-Protime launched a press release within the night with an replace on the GC rider, stating that after the stage, Vollering was taken to the workforce lodge to be examined by the workforce physician. The physician concluded that Vollering had suffered “minor bruising and superficial abrasions to her decrease again and buttock,” however she sustained no fractures.
“Contemplating how briskly I fell, I’m glad I didn’t undergo any damaged bones. After the autumn I needed to get well and verify every part. Then, I used to be capable of get again on my bike and proceed the race. Now we’ve to attend and see the way it feels tomorrow morning. However I assume I can proceed the Tour tomorrow.” Vollering stated in a press release.
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“I’m comfortable that Blanka Vas nonetheless managed to win the stage. After her disappointment of simply lacking out on a medal on the Olympics, she picks up a phenomenal victory right here.”
As a result of time loss, Vollering is now 1:19 down on the GC from race lead Niewiadoma.
“That is nothing within the mountains,” commented Niewiadoma, who expects a superb battle between her and Vollering because the Tour strikes into the Alps.
Friday’s stage 6 heads into the Jura mountains and ventures above 1,000m for the primary time, giving riders a style of what is to come back within the closing days. There are 5 categorised climbs to deal with, with 4 of them within the second half of the course, together with the second-category La Roche du Pretre, onto which piggybacks the cat-three Côte des Fins. This stage will doubtless be a testing floor for the GC favourites earlier than we head to the actually large mountains.
