Latest news with #FDJSuez
RNZ News
4 hours ago
- Sport
- RNZ News
Kiwi Wollaston makes podium on Tour de France
Ally Wollaston. Photo: FDJ-Suez New Zealand cyclist Ally Wollaston has grabbed another Grand Tour podium. The 24-year-old finished third on stage three of the women's Tour de France. The FDJ-Suez rider managed to survive a chaotic sprint finish to the 164km stage from La Gacilly to Angers. Sprint specialist Lorena Wiebes of the Netherlands made an explosive push for the finish as a crash in the final 4km temporarily took out several riders including 2023 champion and Wollaston's team-mate Demi Vollering of the Netherlands. Opening stage winner Marianne Vos of the Netherlands lost a photo-finish to Wiebes but reclaimed the yellow jersey from Kim Le Court Pienaar, who led the general classification after Sunday's second stage but dropped to second with a six-second deficit. The stage, mostly on a flat terrain, began without Giro d'Italia winner Elisa Longo Borghini, who withdrew from the race due to a stomach infection. Vollering, who recovered from the crash, remained in contention in the general classification, sitting 19 seconds behind Vos. Another New Zealander, Niamh Fisher-Black, is tenth overall, 25 seconds behind the leader. Wollaston won a silver and bronze medal on the track at last year's Paris Olympics and won world titles in the elimination race and omnium. She finished third on a stage of the Vuelta Femenina earlier this year. The Tour continues on Tuesday with stage four, a 130.7km ride from Saumur to Poitiers through another mostly-flat terrain. The Tour is over nine stages. -RNZ / Reuters
The Guardian
7 hours ago
- Sport
- The Guardian
Don't look back in Angers: Wiebes sprints to stage three win at Tour de France Femmes
Lorena Wiebes is widely known as the best sprinter in women's cycling and the Dutch rider did not disappoint on stage three of the Tour de France Femmes, coming from deep to roar past her rivals and pip Marianne Vos at the finish line in Angers. Wiebes' victory capped a chaotic last few kilometres, with dozens of riders caught up in a heavy crash on a narrow bend. The 2023 Tour winner, Demi Vollering, seen as one of the favourites for general classification this year, went down hard and had to be helped back on her bike by her FDJ-Suez teammates, before gingerly rolling over the finish line to stay in the race. Elisa Balsamo (Lidl-Trek) was another who looked hurt, although none of the affected riders will lose time in the GC standings as the crash occurred less than five kilometres before the end of the stage. Wiebes had been disappointed to miss out on a potential sprint victory on Sunday after Mavi García's well-judged breakaway, but the European champion made no mistake on Monday as Wiebes bided her time before roaring past her rivals on the home straight, before finishing with too much pace for her trailing compatriot, Marianne Vos. Vos had to settle for second place behind but reclaimed the yellow jersey after narrowly losing it to Kim Le Court after stage two. 'It was very hectic, very fast,' Vos said of the finish. 'Of course, everyone was fighting for position and I think when we went right on to the river there was a big crash behind me. I hope everyone is well.' Vos, 38, is now six seconds ahead of Mauritius' Le Court in the general classification after the flat 163.5km ride from La Gacilly to Angers. France's Olympic cross-country champion, Pauline Ferrand-Prevot, completed the top three, 12 seconds behind, with last year's Tour winner, Katarzyna Niewiadoma, fourth. Vollering remains fifth in the GC standings but faces a short window of recovery after her crash before Tuesday's fourth stage, another flat stage from Saumur to Poitiers.
The Guardian
3 days ago
- Sport
- The Guardian
Vollering out to avenge 2024 heartbreak in Tour de France Femmes battle with Niewiadoma
The fourth edition of the Tour de France Femmes begins in Brittany on Saturday with defending champion Kasia Niewiadoma facing a range of new challengers as Demi Vollering seeks to avenge last year's cruel four second defeat on Alpe d'Huez. While the Polish star has stated her wish to win back-to-back Tours, Vollering, who moved to the French team FDJ Suez at the end of last season, is determined to again conquer the race she won in 2023. Their duel on the slopes of Alpe d'Huez at the climax of last year's race was one of the most gripping in the history of any Tour de France and led to the narrowest margin of overall victory ever, in either the men's or women's race. Vollering, now 28, the winner of this year's women's Vuelta a España, Strade Bianche and three other stage races, arrives in Brittany as the outstanding favourite. Niewiadoma has made a slow start this year but comes to the race in ascending form for Canyon-Sram, having won the Polish national road race title in June and finished third in the Tour of Switzerland. But the pair have other rivals, with Marlen Reusser, winner of the Tour of Switzerland and second in the Giro d'Italia, and Elisa Longo Borghini, winner of the women's Giro, leading the way. Others including Australian climber Sarah Gigante, Pauline Ferrand-Prevot, winner of the women's Paris-Roubaix, and Anna van der Breggen, third in the women's Vuelta and Vollering's former sports director, are among those capable of mounting a serious challenge. The peloton will race more than 1,165km across the country from Brittany to the mountains, the stages increasing in difficulty before a final weekend of climbing in the Alps. As for the race itself, which will stage its 2027 Grand Départ in the UK, director Marion Rousse has been overwhelmed by the huge growth of its popularity. 'The women's Tour de France is growing fast, almost too fast,' she said. 'I think back to the first edition, I had a lot of questions and doubts. I wondered if it would work, if people would watch and be interested.' In 2026 the race will move dates to a standalone start, that no longer piggybacks the interest in the final weekend of the men's race. 'Our Tour is getting too big to be run at the same time as the men's race,' Rousse said. 'We need to change the model and create our own timescale.' The sporting demands of the race are also increasing, something that Rousse again sees as a natural evolution. This year, both the mammoth climbs of Col de la Madeleine and the brutal Joux Plane feature on the final weekend. After last year's cliffhanger, Rousse is hoping for another gripping ending to the nine stage race. 'If it's too hard, sometimes that causes too many differences in level, or too much time to be lost. That can kill the suspense,' she said. 'Just making it super hard, doesn't make it the best race to watch.'
SBS Australia
09-06-2025
- Sport
- SBS Australia
Unclipped with Grace Brown: Inside FDJ-Suez - A Former Teammate Reads the Race
This week, Grace Brown breaks down FDJ-Suez's dominance across two key races on the women's calendar. In Catalunya, they won every stage and the overall. In Britain, Ally Wollaston snatched GC victory by a single second in a rain-soaked finale. The execution was sharp, familiar, and unmistakably FDJ. Grace knows the team's DNA, and she reflects on the measured, instinctive, and ruthlessly well-timed style. Meanwhile in France, the Critérium du Dauphiné lit up early, with Tour favourites already trading blows - a clear sign July's battles have begun.
RNZ News
08-06-2025
- Sport
- RNZ News
Cycling: Kiwi Ally Wollaston wins Tour of Britain
Ally Wollaston. Photo: FDJ-Suez New Zealand cyclist Ally Wollaston has won the Tour of Britain. Wollaston went into the fourth and final stage three seconds behind British rider Cat Ferguson but picked up time bonuses in the three intermediate sprints in Glasgow before gaining another four bonus seconds by finishing third on the stage. Wollaston, who rides for FDJ-Suez, beat Movistar's Ferguson by four seconds overall. "I'm a little bit overwhelmed, sorry. I'm so happy, first of all, a massive thank you to my team-mates, I couldn't have done it without them," Wollaston said. "This means the world to me, it's my first World Tour victory in GC (general classification)." Wollaston, 24, is two-time world champion on the track and last year won a silver and bronze medal at the Paris Olympics. She won a World Tour one-day race in Australia in February. "I knew I needed to get every second I could in the bonus sprints, and unfortunately, Cat was right on my wheel every time! "So it came down to the last sprint, and there was a moment of doubt halfway through that last lap where I thought 'I just cannot do this today', and my team-mates really helped me pull it together and pulled me to the front for the final." The final stage was held on an 8.4km city-centre circuit in Glasgow.
