Pauline Ferrand-Prévot's win at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift and the whole week of racing in France left women's cycling fans hungry for more. New converts to the sport and seasoned viewers alike tuned in last Friday to watch the next race on the WorldTour calendar, only to find out that five teams had been disqualified, including a handful of the race favourites.
Much was said, in the hours and days after the decision, about the UCI, Velon, and the stance of the teams, but the ones who really suffered were the riders who had travelled all the way to Switzerland only to be kicked out of the race for something outside of their control.
"The main point is this power struggle and this fight, in the end, it’s impacting the riders the most in terms of not being able to race, not being able to do our jobs," one of the disqualified riders told Escape Collective. "Some teams went home, in the end, they lost on two days of training or racing."
When I heard the disqualification news, I cried.
Reactions from members of the teams told to leave the race by the governing body were varied, because teams gave their riders different degrees of information. Some riders were told the whole story, from their team's point of view, while others were only informed that the team management had made a decision and the riders had then been disqualified.
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