{"id":2085866,"date":"2026-08-10T08:50:53","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T05:50:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2085866"},"modified":"2026-08-10T08:50:53","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T05:50:53","slug":"death-threats-and-historical-beefs-how-vollering-vs-niewiadoma-became-cyclings-spiciest-rivalry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2085866","title":{"rendered":"Death Threats and Historical Beefs: How Vollering vs. Niewiadoma Became Cycling’s Spiciest Rivalry"},"content":{"rendered":"
Demi Vollering vs. Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney.<\/p>\n
The greatest stealth rivalry of world cycling was blown onto the world stage last week at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift.<\/p>\n
The controversy that erupted after Saturday\u2019s explosive 8th stage put the heat on a Tour de France antagonism that\u2019s been simmering since 2022.<\/p>\n
Two-year-old beefs and pseudo-apologies bubbled out of Niewiadoma\u2019s bomb-blast comments Saturday.<\/p>\n
The Polish star torched Vollering\u2019s teammate C\u00e9lia Gery for a dark-arts maneuver that could have decided the race, providing a cascade of speculation, accusation, and unrestrained anger.<\/p>\n
\u201cKasia Korner\u201d sparked a social media storm that saw Gery blasted by death threats and neither Demi nor Kasia holding back from bitter statements that seem rare in a sport of media training and PR product.<\/p>\n
Niewiadoma and Vollering claimed Sunday night they made peace after they finished 1-2 Sunday night to cap the most incredible 9 days of the entire cycling season.<\/p>\n
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But the biggest feud of the cycling season might not be forgotten, either.<\/p>\n
A four-year rivalry gains new ferocity<\/h2>\n
Vollering and Niewiadoma split from the bunch on stage 9 in the final chapter of their heated GC rivalry at the Tour de France Femmes.<\/span> (Photo: Gruber Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Vollering and Niewiadoma have been chasing each other\u2019s wheels and bashing bars for years.<\/p>\n
They both hit the podium in every edition of the Tour de France Femmes. They\u2019ve been separated by only one position on four out of five editions of the biggest race on the calendar.<\/p>\n
And this year, they also shared podiums at Omloop Nieuwsblad, Amstel Gold Race, and Li\u00e8ge.<\/p>\n
Aged 29 (Vollering) and 31 (Niewiadoma), they\u2019re the two closest competitors in the Women\u2019s WorldTour.<\/p>\n
Vollering vs. Niewiadoma, Tour de France Femmes<\/h3>\n
Vollering took a new advantage over Niewiadoma on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The Dutchwoman became the first to win two editions of the Femmes in a final day demolition that proved who\u2019s strongest.<\/p>\n
Vollering, who finished the race with three stage wins and a 1:16 GC lead, made a point to highlight who\u2019s best in her winner\u2019s interview Sunday.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI wanted to make it clear that we didn\u2019t win because of an incident yesterday,\u201d Vollering said, referring back to \u201cKasia corner.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not what I believe,\u201d Vollering said after the stage Sunday. \u201cI wanted to make it clear that we as a team deserve to win a beautiful Tour de France Femmes with humility and with pride.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Niewiadoma acknowledged in her final conference\u00a0Sunday night that Vollering was the stronger. The Dutchwoman spurred her to improve.<\/p>\n
Niewiadoma was also was keen to play down any talk of a fued with Vollering.<\/p>\n
Both riders spoke of a moment of reconciliation when they shared space in the peloton on Sunday\u2019s stage around Nice.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have been competing together for years, and we will be competing for the next years,\u201d Niewiadoma said Sunday night. \u201cNeither of us ever wants to have any sort of a beef between us.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Niewiadoma even made the gesture \u2013 which was handily caught on camera\u00a0\u2013 of visiting FDJ United-Suez manager Lars Boom to smooth things over with Vollering\u2019s entourage.<\/p>\n
It was a direct \u00a0U-Turn from Niewiadoma\u2019s stance in the press conference Sunday night.<\/p>\n
According to IDL<\/em>, the 31-year-old brushed away a question about FDJ Suez manager Stephen Delcourt thinking Vollering owed him an apology for her viral outburst the day before.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hadn\u2019t heard that he thought that, but if that\u2019s what he thinks, then that\u2019s OK,\u201d Niewiadoma said of Delcourt\u2019s demand.<\/p>\n
\u2018It\u2019s not that I make things up\u2019<\/h2>\nNiewiadoma was still raging about \u2018Kasia Korner\u2019 on Sunday morning.<\/span> (Photo: Gruber Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Sunday\u2019s reconciliation \u2013 or not \u2013 might not paper over all that happened in the 24 hours before.<\/p>\n
The historical tension between these two simmers so hard that they seem to find it impossible to keep a lid on it.<\/p>\n
Speaking before the final stage Sunday morning, Vollering and Niewiadoma both tried to turn down the heat on the firestorm that lit up after\u00a0that\u00a0<\/em>incident on Saturday\u2019s stage.<\/p>\n
But neither was backing down either.<\/p>\n
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Niewiadoma was resolute that she was the victim of tactics so \u201cdirty\u201d it incentivized her Canyon-SRAM team to lodge a formal complaint.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was in the race, and I know how it feels, and I\u2019ve been racing for years,\u201d Niewiadoma said Sunday morning. \u201cI\u2019ve expressed my opinion.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know what\u2019s right and what\u2019s not maybe necessarily right. It\u2019s not that I make things up, and I think I expressed what I had, and nothing has changed since that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Shots fired.<\/p>\n
\u2018I don\u2019t forget about what she did\u2019<\/h2>\n
Meanwhile, Vollering was so incensed by Niewiadoma\u2019s outburst Saturday \u2013 something FDJ director Boom told Sporza<\/em> had stoked online death threats to Gery \u2013 that the Dutchwoman dragged up the seemingly unforgotten past.<\/p>\n
In 2024, Vollering crashed while wearing the yellow jersey just 6km from the finish of stage 5 of the Tour de France Femmes.<\/p>\n
The race-leader was largely abandoned by her SD Worx teammates as the race rushed toward its finale.<\/p>\n
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Niewiadoma was part of the leading group that didn\u2019t wait for the stranded maillot jaune. <\/em>She went on to\u00a0finish the day with a significant GC margin that proved decisive in her overall victory.<\/p>\n
Two years later, Vollering suggested Niewiadoma, as her GC rival, should have followed cycling\u2019s unwritten code and waited.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t forget about what she did when I was on the ground two years ago,\u201d Vollering said Sunday morning. \u201cIf she\u2019s speaking about fair play, then I think she is not the one who can really say something about that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shots returned.<\/p>\n
Back for more in 2027?<\/h2>\nVollering and Niewiadoma claim to have buried the hatchet, but their rivalry will live on.<\/span> (Photo: Tim de Waele\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Vollering and Niewiadoma both leave the Tour de France Femmes with no regrets.<\/p>\n
Vollering became the first woman to win the yellow jersey twice. Niewiadoma refused to bow down to the queen of the modern peloton and delivered an all-time climbing performance on Mont Ventoux.<\/p>\n
Both of their schedules for the remainder of 2026 are unknown. The Women\u2019s WorldTour calendar is so front-loaded that Vollering and Niewiadoma might not see each other again until 2027.<\/p>\n
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They both will no doubt be centering their calendar for the new year on the UK grand d\u00e9part<\/em> on July 31.<\/p>\n
It feels like 51 weeks won\u2019t be long enough for this rivalry to cool down.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Z8A_1012-scaled.jpg”] Jim Cotton Updated August 10, 2026 03:05AM Demi Vollering vs. Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney. The greatest stealth rivalry of world cycling was blown onto the world stage last week at the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. The controversy that erupted after Saturday\u2019s explosive 8th stage put the heat on a Tour de France […]<\/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-2085866","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\/2085866","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=2085866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2085866\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2085866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2085866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2085866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Vollering](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Z8D_7243-1200x750.jpg?width=3840&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
![\"Gery,](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Z8A_6967-1200x890.jpg?width=3840&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
![](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2289754335.jpg?width=2048&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")