“We cannot really change things, and we just need to stick together today and make it through,” was how Demi Vollering’s FDJ-SUEZ teammate Elise Chabbey assessed the task ahead on stage 4 at the Tour de France Femmes in Saumar. And that is exactly what the French team did.
There was no sign that either the team or rider was prepared to give up on the overall fight, after all the crash in stage 3 had occurred in the last 5km, so her time remained intact at just 19 seconds behind race leader Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike). The question instead was: was the rider herself equally intact?
