Demi Vollering 'does not need background noise' surrounding crash row at Tour de France Semmes avec Zwift, says Dani Rowe

Olympic gold medallist Dani Rowe has accused sporting directors Stephen Delcourt and Jos van Emden of creating "background noise" that Demi Vollering "does not need" following the major crash towards the end of the third stage of the Tour de France Semmes avec Zwift. There have been growing tensions between FDJ-Suez and Visma-Lease a Bike since Delcourt called other riders "truly disrespectful".

'An awful lot of noise' - Breakaway discuss Vollering-Visma 'cage-gate' spat

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Olympic gold medallist Dani Rowe has accused sporting directors Stephen Delcourt and Jos van Emden for creating background noise that Demi Vollering does not need on TNT Sport’s Breakaway show.

There have been growing tensions between Vollering’s FDJ Suez and Visma-Lease a Bike following the heavy crash towards the end of the third stage of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, in which Vollering was injured.

There were fears her Tour was over due to concussion, but she was cleared to ride and came within an inch of taking the fifth stage, won by AG Insurance-Soudal's Mauritian rider Kim Le Court.

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Vollering sits third in the general classification standings, as she looks to win her second Tour de France title, just 23 seconds behind leader Le Court and only five seconds behind Visma-Lease a Bike’s Pauline Ferrand-Prevot.

It is perhaps the proximity of the Dutch and French riders in chasing Le Court Pienaar that has led to the "golden cage" fury.

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Video credit: TNT Sports

Following the crash on Monday, Delcourt said: "That crash wasn’t ASO’s fault, it was the riders. It all comes down to respect, the mentality of some teams is unbelievable, truly disrespectful.

"They’re playing with people’s lives like this. Demi wants to ride at the front, but they keep cutting her off."

Van Emden responded: "I have no respect at all for these comments. Let me be clear, what he is saying is completely ridiculous.

"He seems to want a peloton of eight riders with Demi in it, riding in a golden cage - sure, she is the best rider but that doesn’t mean that everyone needs to move aside for her."

The comments have elongated talks about the crash despite Vollering recovering and being in the mix for a second yellow jersey, something Rowe believes must be distracting.

She said: "I am sorry but there is absolutely no way the riders are going to be approaching that, three and a half km to go and say, 'you know what, I am going to cut up Demi Vollering, because she is the biggest threat to us'.

"I completely agree, to some respect, with Jos van Emden, because everyone deserves the right to be there, this is the Tour de France Femmes, so they are going to be fighting for position.

"I think it has got nothing to do with trying to cut Demi Vollering out to try and sacrifice her chances in this year’s tour, it is just to do with this being the biggest bike ride in the world and this is background noise that she just doesn’t need.

"She has not asked for this here, ultimately they just need to focus on their performance and that is the DS’ job, to take all of that away from them and actually what they are doing is they are adding to that energy."

Former French rider Audrey Cordon-Ragot believes Vollering should not have been in the position to be in such a heavy crash in the first place, when competing for the general classification gong.

"She is a very emotional rider, you could see yesterday in an interview pre-race, she was really on the edge, almost crying, I think she has been putting so much pressure on her shoulders," Cordon-Ragot said.

"She was in the middle of this crash, but she was also positioning herself in the sprint when all the others were stepping back, letting the sprinters do their job and staying safe.

"No, she was there in the middle. Of course they are going to look at Demi, if they want to go, they go because it is a sprint, if it was the same crash, maybe after 20 kilometres in the middle of the race, I would have said, you know it is a pity, it happens.

"But when you know it is a sprint, the whole race has been so quiet, everyone is fresh, everyone wants to be there, step back, stay safe with one or two riders next to you."

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Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift