{"id":333448,"date":"2025-08-10T15:23:16","date_gmt":"2025-08-10T15:23:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/333448\/"},"modified":"2025-08-10T15:23:16","modified_gmt":"2025-08-10T15:23:16","slug":"youre-a-professional-cyclist-weight-does-matter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/333448\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cYou\u2019re a professional cyclist. Weight does matter\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nVollering\u2019s post-Tour message<\/p>\n

Vollering\u2019s social media post \u2014 shared several days after the Tour concluded \u2014 offered a heartfelt and thoughtful reflection on the pressures faced by female athletes. In it, she acknowledged the volume of post-race media attention directed at her body weight, and made clear that for her, the priority would always be long-term health over short-term performance gains.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not built to be the lightest rider in the peloton. And I don\u2019t want to force my body to become something it\u2019s not,\u201d she wrote. \u201cWe did everything we could to arrive at the Tour in the best possible shape \u2014 for me\u2026 Losing weight is not the ultimate solution.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also pointed to the influence of elite athletes on younger generations: \u201cBecause young girls are watching us. They notice what we say \u2014 and what we don\u2019t\u2026 The risk is real\u2026 disordered thinking can grow quietly and stay hidden for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

The post has been widely praised across the sport for its maturity and candour, particularly given the delicate balance female athletes often must strike between performance, health, and public expectation. But Horner, while not dismissing the sentiment, saw it as out of step with the tactical errors he believes defined Vollering\u2019s race \u2014 and her inability to match eventual winner Pauline Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot<\/a> on raw physical performance.\"DemiVollering\"\/<\/p>\n

Vollering was a distant 2nd behind Ferrand-Prevot in France<\/p>\n

\u201cYou went 0 for 2\u201d: Horner\u2019s critiqueMuch of Horner\u2019s criticism centred on Stage 9, a brutal 125km route featuring three classified climbs and a steep drag to the finish. Vollering\u2019s FDJ\u2013Suez squad rode aggressively, with Juliette Labous<\/a> and Evita Muzic setting pace for much of the day while Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot remained isolated in the yellow jersey.<\/p>\n

Yet despite this apparent numerical advantage, Horner argues that FDJ\u2019s tactics effectively handed the race to Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou had the yellow jersey isolated for 80% of the stage, and no one took advantage,\u201d Horner said.\u00a0\u201cJuliette Labous was riding on the front, pulling the yellow jersey. Demi Vollering pulled her all the way to the finish.\u201d<\/p>\n

Horner was particularly scathing about the missed opportunity to force Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot onto the front, or to isolate her under pressure by launching repeated attacks. \u201cIf Demi Vollering is not at her optimal watts per kilo, you do not want to go one-on-one against Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u201cInstead, you want to get her working. Get her covering attacks. But what happened? She sat back there like she was having a coconut Snickers, getting a free ride.\u201d<\/p>\n

The debate around weight, performance, and responsibility<\/p>\n

Horner acknowledged the complexity of weight in professional cycling \u2014 but made no bones about its significance. \u201cYes, the way you get to race weight is important. Health is important. But let\u2019s not pretend it\u2019s not a performance factor. It is.\u201d<\/p>\n

He recounted his own experience riding for FDJ in the late 1990s, describing how his directeur sportif could detect even a half-kilo gain, despite winter jackets and layers. \u201cThat\u2019s just the reality of racing in the European peloton,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Still, Vollering\u2019s message resonates in a sport where stories of disordered eating, underfueling, and long-term health consequences have increasingly come to light \u2014 particularly in the women\u2019s peloton. While Horner\u2019s analysis focuses on tactical and physiological shortcomings, Vollering\u2019s post aims to broaden the conversation to include athlete welfare and the message sent to future generations.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the debate comes down to the balance between realism and responsibility. Vollering insists that there is no single path to success in the sport. Horner, meanwhile, sees Stage 9 as a textbook case of a rider losing out because they didn\u2019t get either of the two most critical elements \u2014 power-to-weight and tactics \u2014 right.<\/p>\n

Both views can be true. What\u2019s clear is that Vollering\u2019s words \u2014 and Horner\u2019s response \u2014 have sparked a conversation that goes far beyond a single stage or a single Tour.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Vollering\u2019s post-Tour message Vollering\u2019s social media post \u2014 shared several days after the Tour concluded \u2014 offered…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":333449,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4104],"tags":[4230,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-333448","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115005162014771492","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333448\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/333449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}