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.<\/p>\n
With good reason, too. A latecomer to cycling, she won the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a Femenina in May, beating Anna van der Breggen, and has triumphed in her last three stage races.<\/p>\n
However, Team UAE L\u2019IMAD tactics might stop her from even having the chance to race for Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift victory this week.<\/p>\n
As their sports director Cherie Pridham told Velo <\/em>at the start of stage two in Aigle, their strategy from the start of the year has been that Elisa Longo Borghini and Dominika W\u0142odarczyk would be the team\u2019s co-leaders and that remains the case. Longo Borghini is sixth overall, six places and 8 seconds ahead of Blasi, after stage two.<\/p>\n Pre-race, 23-year-old Blasi spoke about doing the sport\u2019s leading race mainly for experience. She told In De Waaier <\/i>podcast the team had told her that she \u201cwon\u2019t be able to compete in the time trial or go for stage wins,\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut I believe you have to show how you work for others so that they then work for you. It wasn\u2019t easy to hear that I wasn\u2019t in the running because my expectations were high.\u201d<\/p>\n Spanish cycling\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n Asked by Velo <\/i>after stage 2 in Geneva if she was happy with the strategy and whether she wanted to be leader, Blasi said: \u201cNo, no, I\u2019m actually really happy. The team has a clear mindset and of course, you need to respect that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe all did our preparation and for sure, then [each rider\u2019s training] numbers are there and I truly believe in the race tactics we have as a team.\u201d<\/p>\n She added later: \u201cIt\u2019s not an individual sport so the road speaks but you need a teammate that helps you position. For now, we\u2019ll keep the plan we had at the beginning and we\u2019ll see day by day.\u201d<\/p>\n 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: \u201cI\u2019m riding alone\u201d.<\/p>\n Blasi explained that she simply meant that she was \u201ccompletely dropped in the last kilometer so I was in no bunch. In Spanish you say \u2018in tierra de nadie<\/i>\u2019 [no man\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n The Spaniard also joked about having a difficult first day in the white jersey. \u201cI\u2019m used to wearing the UAE kit, it was a bit hard also because sometimes people don\u2019t recognise you.<\/p>\n \u201cThey think I\u2019m from another team and they kick me out of my own team. I\u2019m like \u2018no, I\u2019m UAE!\u2019 But apart from that, all good.\u201d<\/p>\n She added: \u201cToday, I think the team raced more as a group, as a unit, it was so nice. Dommy [W\u0142odarczyk] and Elisa were totally covered.\u201d<\/p>\n Co-leader W\u0142odarczyk 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.<\/p>\n \u201cI truly believe the Tour is long,\u201d the talented Polish climber told\u00a0Velo\u00a0<\/em>on Sunday morning. \u201cI have a super strong team behind me, that\u2019s why I\u2019m happy Elisa is also in the same time as the GC contenders, Paula is also super high,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cTo 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.\u201d<\/p>\n In terms of clarity of roles, W\u0142odarczyk added that she thought Blasi was helping the team on day one.<\/p>\n In their pre-race press conference Thursday, UAE Team L\u2019IMAD riders were reluctant to divulge much about their leadership strategy.<\/p>\n Sports director Cherie Pridham spoke to Velo <\/i>at the start in Aigle Sunday. Asked whether Blasi is a co-leader or a wild card, she replied: \u201cNo, she comes with her expectations, of course she\u2019s strong, we see how she rode well [on day one] and is in the white jersey now.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut she\u2019s here to learn. She has her strengths, we\u2019re there to support her, of course. But from the beginning of the year, our strategy was always to support Dommy and Elisa.\u201d<\/p>\n So, what is<\/em> their plan for this race? \u201cAh, that\u2019s the strength of our team,\u201d Pridham said. \u201cAnd I think you\u2019ll have to watch and see how the game plays on the road \u2026 we have such a strong team here, we\u2019re going to let the road do the talking.\u201d<\/p>\n Letting the road speak is an expression Pridham, Blasi and W\u0142odarczyk have all used in interviews in recent days. What does it mean?<\/p>\n \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Pridham is adamant there is no confusion within the team about roles and that they will stick to their dual leadership plan after W\u0142odarczyk\u2019s crash.<\/p>\n \u201cThirty-seven seconds in the grand scheme of things \u2013 when you\u2019re going up the Ventoux [on stage 7 Friday], a lot can change. We have complete confidence in the girls and a strong team,\u201d she told Velo<\/i>.<\/p>\n 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 \u201cassess that on the road, but we go day by day.\u201d<\/p>\n There is also the distinct possibility that Blasi could leave the team after this season: Movistar and Lidl-Trek are among rumored suitors.<\/p>\n The apparent shackling of Blasi has not gone unnoticed by Spanish media or wider social media. \u201cEveryone believes Paula Blasi can win the Tour de France, except her team,\u201d was the headline accompanying an El Pa\u00eds<\/i> article by leading Spanish cycling journalist, Carlos Arribas. The #FreeBlasi hashtag has been making occasional appearances on X.<\/p>\n For now, Elisa Longo Borghini sits pretty in sixth overall, 10 seconds behind Lorena Wiebes, with Blasi in 12th, 18 seconds down.<\/p>\n After a 2025 Tour wracked by illness for the team, Pridham\u2019s ideal scenario in Nice is for Team UAE L\u2019IMAD is to win a stage and to be \u201cin the game\u201d for GC.<\/p>\n Evidently, the road will decide whether that is with Longo Borghini, W\u0142odarczyk or Blasi.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/road\/road-racing\/tour-de-france-femmes\/paula-blasi-wants-win-tour-de-france-femmes-uae-team-tactics-wont-let-her\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2288027565.jpg”] Andy McGrath Updated August 3, 2026 09:39AM 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 Espa\u00f1a Femenina in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-2075333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2075333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2075333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2075333\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2075333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2075333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2075333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Blasi: happy to be helper?<\/h2>\n
![](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2288027585-720x480.jpg?width=1920&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
Spaniard jokes about being \u2018kicked out\u2019 of her own team<\/h2>\n
![\"Paula](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2275300955-720x480.jpg?width=1920&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
Fallen co-leader with time to make up<\/h2>\n
UAE\u2019s mysterious race plan<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Confidence in their two leaders<\/h2>\n
Transfer rumors swirl around Spanish youngster<\/h2>\n