'Riders need to change their mentality' - FDJ-SUEZ manager decries Women's UAE Tour stage 1 crash
Lizzie Dei⛎gnan and Alison Jacksthe on say crash was just nerves, loss of꧟ focus

A high-speed 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:crash in stage 1 of the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:UAE Tour Women 2025 saw over 30 riders go down, and at least one, 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Letizia Paternoster (Liv AlUla Jayco), had to abandon the race.
Stephen Delcourt, general manager at FDJ-Suez, blamed riders' behaviour for the wreck, which 💜sent two of his riders Coral💛ie Demay and Alessia Vigilia - to the hospital with injuries.
"It's the first stage of a race in the beginning of the season an🗹d I have never understood why a rider takes risks like this at a moment where there is no interest," said Delcourt.
"Now we have riders at the hospital𒁃, maybe two, one for a collarb🥀one and other elbow. It's really damaging that a rider takes risks like this.
"It's just the only part of my job that I hate. When you have a crash, you go to the hospital, and you see your rider who worked really hard all the winter to prepare, and th♓ey arrived, 𓆉and boom finished."
Video of the incident appeared to show the usual 'washing machine' effect, with a line of riders moving up the right side of th🔴e peloton and a slowing on the left, with a J☂ayco-AlUla rider appearing to touch wheels with the rider in front and crash, bringing down a huge group of riders behind.
"Organisers for a race liꦡke this are really profꦓessional; they do [everything] for the rider, so you can't complain about that; it's just a problem of behaviour," Delcourt said.
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"If we want to change the future of our sport, the riders need to🐼 change their mentality. If this doesn't change, it's sure the next g🅘eneration won't want to ride in a bike competition."
Looking towards the upcoming stages, Delcourt was hopeful the team would have better days but could be down🐟 to only three riders as the team also had another ridꩲer who was sick during the night.
"It's not a good beginning for us; we would have preferreꦓd a positive start, but tomorrow is another day," Delcourt said.
"We ha✅ve no big sprinter. We just want to play with Vittoria Guazzini, but she crashed also, and after we want to play Saturday with Juliette Labous."
Also among those who were involved in the crash were 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Lizzie Deignan (Lidl-Trek) and 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Alison Jackson (EF Education-Oatly).
"Everyone crashed in front of me, and behind me, I was in a sandwich in the middle,"🐭 said Deignan.
"I think when it's a day when everyone is waiting for the sprint, people can lose focus a bit. I hit my head, but my head felt OK. I'm experienced enough to know if something is seriously wrꦜong, so you have to throw yourself back into it; otherwise, you end up being scared."
Jackson also went down and is now sporting road rash across her right shoulder and elbow. "We saw some echelons, and peop🍬le started to get nervous," said Jackson.
"It was a nervo๊us peloton, especially with the wind, which is a key poin✱t for everyone."
Jackson had hoped to race on but her EF Education-Oatly later confirmed she had fractured the scaphoid bone in her hand and sh💙e was forced to abandon.
Lorena Wiebes took back-to-back wins on stage 2 at the UAE Tour Women as the GC battle 💧kicked off in the crosswinds as the peꦜloton hit a record-breaking aꦿverage speed of 48.407 km/h.
Emma Cole is a gold-standard NCTJ 🐲journalist who loves anything to do with adventure, sport and sustainability. Alongside writing about these passions for Cyclingnews, her work has also featured in Cycling Weekly, Outdoors Magic and Cyclist Magazine - where she previously held the role of Features Writer for over two years. Emma hosts her own poꦦdcast, The Passion Stories Podcast and has a first-class degree in French and Politics.