Paula Blasi Wants to Win the Tour de France Femmes. UAE Team Tactics Won’t Let Her.

While her teammate Elisa Longo Borghini is riding higher on GC, there is a lot of Tour de France Femmes chatter about the potential of breakout star Paula Blasi.

With good reason, too. A latecomer to cycling, she won the Vuelta a España Femenina in May, beating Anna van der Breggen, and has triumphed in her last three stage races.

However, Team UAE L’IMAD tactics might stop her from even having the chance to race for Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift victory this week.

As their sports director Cherie Pridham told Velo at the start of stage two in Aigle, their strategy from the start of the year has been that Elisa Longo Borghini and Dominika Włodarczyk would be the team’s co-leaders and that remains the case. Longo Borghini is sixth overall, six places and 8 seconds ahead of Blasi, after stage two.

Pre-race, 23-year-old Blasi spoke about doing the sport’s leading race mainly for experience. She told In De Waaier podcast the team had told her that she “won’t be able to compete in the time trial or go for stage wins,”

“But I believe you have to show how you work for others so that they then work for you. It wasn’t easy to hear that I wasn’t in the running because my expectations were high.”

Blasi: happy to be helper?

Spanish cycling’s great white hope has spoken of her dreams of one day winning the Tour de France Femmes and is currently riding high in the white jersey of best young rider.

Asked by Velo after stage 2 in Geneva if she was happy with the strategy and whether she wanted to be leader, Blasi said: “No, no, I’m actually really happy. The team has a clear mindset and of course, you need to respect that.”

“We all did our preparation and for sure, then [each rider’s training] numbers are there and I truly believe in the race tactics we have as a team.”

She added later: “It’s not an individual sport so the road speaks but you need a teammate that helps you position. For now, we’ll keep the plan we had at the beginning and we’ll see day by day.”

Spaniard jokes about being ‘kicked out’ of her own team

The Cycling Podcast journalist Lizzy Banks also said on their episode Saturday that she overheard Blasi utter three words after the finish of stage one: “I’m riding alone”.

Blasi explained that she simply meant that she was “completely dropped in the last kilometer so I was in no bunch. In Spanish you say ‘in tierra de nadie’ [no man’s land], I had no wheels to follow and it was super hard to come back to the first bunch but I could kind of save the day doing 12th.”

The Spaniard also joked about having a difficult first day in the white jersey. “I’m used to wearing the UAE kit, it was a bit hard also because sometimes people don’t recognise you.

“They think I’m from another team and they kick me out of my own team. I’m like ‘no, I’m UAE!’ But apart from that, all good.”

She added: “Today, I think the team raced more as a group, as a unit, it was so nice. Dommy [Włodarczyk] and Elisa were totally covered.”

Fallen co-leader with time to make up

Co-leader Włodarczyk is on the back foot from the first day, losing 37 seconds after being caught in the same crash that took down sprinter Elisa Balsamo 1,500 meters from the finish line.

“I truly believe the Tour is long,” the talented Polish climber told Velo on Sunday morning. “I have a super strong team behind me, that’s why I’m happy Elisa is also in the same time as the GC contenders, Paula is also super high,” she said.

“To be honest, on paper, we are two leaders but the road will speak. The Tour is so, so hard that we really need to see after the TT and harder stages, then maybe we need to change our plan.”

In terms of clarity of roles, Włodarczyk added that she thought Blasi was helping the team on day one.

UAE’s mysterious race plan

In their pre-race press conference Thursday, UAE Team L’IMAD riders were reluctant to divulge much about their leadership strategy.

Sports director Cherie Pridham spoke to Velo at the start in Aigle Sunday. Asked whether Blasi is a co-leader or a wild card, she replied: “No, she comes with her expectations, of course she’s strong, we see how she rode well [on day one] and is in the white jersey now.”

“But she’s here to learn. She has her strengths, we’re there to support her, of course. But from the beginning of the year, our strategy was always to support Dommy and Elisa.”

So, what is their plan for this race? “Ah, that’s the strength of our team,” Pridham said. “And I think you’ll have to watch and see how the game plays on the road … we have such a strong team here, we’re going to let the road do the talking.”

Confidence in their two leaders

Letting the road speak is an expression Pridham, Blasi and Włodarczyk have all used in interviews in recent days. What does it mean?

“We have confidence in Dommy, we have a born leader in Elisa, she has the strength in the GC. She has had a difficult start to the season, she showed her strength in the Giro and we have confidence in having two co-leaders. It plays to our advantage.”

Pridham is adamant there is no confusion within the team about roles and that they will stick to their dual leadership plan after Włodarczyk’s crash.

“Thirty-seven seconds in the grand scheme of things – when you’re going up the Ventoux [on stage 7 Friday], a lot can change. We have complete confidence in the girls and a strong team,” she told Velo.

As for what would happen if Paula finishes in front of the two co-leaders after the 21km stage four time-trial, Pridham said they would “assess that on the road, but we go day by day.”

Transfer rumors swirl around Spanish youngster

There is also the distinct possibility that Blasi could leave the team after this season: Movistar and Lidl-Trek are among rumored suitors.

The apparent shackling of Blasi has not gone unnoticed by Spanish media or wider social media. “Everyone believes Paula Blasi can win the Tour de France, except her team,” was the headline accompanying an El País article by leading Spanish cycling journalist, Carlos Arribas. The #FreeBlasi hashtag has been making occasional appearances on X.

For now, Elisa Longo Borghini sits pretty in sixth overall, 10 seconds behind Lorena Wiebes, with Blasi in 12th, 18 seconds down.

After a 2025 Tour wracked by illness for the team, Pridham’s ideal scenario in Nice is for Team UAE L’IMAD is to win a stage and to be “in the game” for GC.

Evidently, the road will decide whether that is with Longo Borghini, Włodarczyk or Blasi.