Team SD Worx were once again in the headlines after stage 5 of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, for good and bad reasons.
Team leader Demi Vollering was handed a 20-second time penalty for drafting behind her team car through part of the race convoy after a puncture. The team lost sprinter Lorena Wiebes due to illness before the stage and then Marlen Reusser’s chase behind Ricarda Bauernfeind (Canyon-SRAM) ‘only’ resulted in a second place.
The only redeeming result of the day was that Lotte Kopecky defended the yellow jersey but she struggled to see the positive aspects of the stage.
“It’s not nice to start the day by losing Lorena. But Demi getting 20 seconds for this reason, that’s a bit bullshit, I think,” Kopecky said bluntly.
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“If you get dropped, then no one should bring you back. But if you have a mechanical, and that happens all the time, then it's stupid that she gets 20 seconds,” Kopecky argued, echoing the words of her directeur sportif Danny Stam who unsuccessfully lodged a protest against the jury’s decision.
The time penalty was widely expected during the stage after a race commissaire pointed angrily at the SD worx team car. It looked as if something might be salvageable in the final kilometres as Kopecky was by far the strongest sprinter in the front group. However this strategy unravelled when it was clear that SD Worx would get no help in the chase because everyone knew that Kopecky would win the sprint. She did but only for fourth place after Ricarda Bauernfeind (Canyon-SRAM Racing) won alone and Marlen Reusser (Team SD Worx) Liane Lippert (Movistar) finished just ahead of the peloton after trying to chase down Bauernfeind.
“If I wasn’t in this group, then for sure other teams would also try to close the gap,” Kopecky admitted.
In a way, SD Worx’s star-studded roster worked against them on the stage. The team is fully supporting Vollering’s GC bid, meaning that sometimes there are no riders left to support the daily ambitions of Kopecky, Wiebes, or Reusser.
“I think it's a missed opportunity. But I cannot ask Demi to start riding in the end,” Kopecky said.
“As we said from the first day, the GC is the most important thing, so it’s vital that we don't want to waste too much energy that we may need later. It's a missed opportunity for sure, but that’s the reason. And it’s nice that the women who were trying to get in the break get a reward.”
Before the race, many had touted stage 5 as a likely mass sprint finish but a very long stage the previous day, sweltering temperatures, and challenging climbs all combined to make the stage much harder than it looked on paper.
“We knew that the start was pretty hard. But I thought that the race would calm down a bit after the first 20 kilometres. I think a lot of people underestimated this stage, I did too, actually. I thought it would be a possibility to get a bunch sprint, but with this course, there was no chance,” Kopecky said.
Having worn the leader’s jersey from stage 1, Kopecky had to shoulder extra responsibilities this week with interviews, press conferences and the like. But unlike GC contenders who might try to reduce this extra work and focus on overall victory, the 27-year-old Belgian has enjoyed the limelight.
“This is kind of a dream come true. Coming into this Tour, if you told me this before, I would never have believed you. I just try to enjoy every moment,” the yellow jersey said.
