“The move between Gery and Niewiadoma was a racing incident.”

The final climb of stage 8 of the Tour de France Femmes has left one question hanging over the race in Nice. Kasia Niewiadoma started the day in yellow with a 15 second lead. She ended it eight seconds behind Demi Vollering, and she was angry about more than the time. Niewiadoma, who rides for Canyon//SRAM, says FDJ United-Suez rider Célia Gery closed the door on her at the foot of the decisive climb. "I was super annoyed at the beginning of the climb because Gery on purpose just blocked me to the barriers where I had to stop pedalling," she told Eurosport. "I feel like if they want to compete, they should compete fairly and not look for me to close me in the barriers, because I feel like it's so childish." Minutes later she rode up to Gery and asked: "Why did you close me to the barriers? Was it part of the plan?" A Canyon//SRAM staff member led her away before the exchange went further. Part of it was the plan, and FDJ United-Suez does not hide that. Sports director Lars Boom explained the instruction to WielerFlits. "The plan was for Célia to stay in Demi's wheel until after the corner," he said. "Then, when Demi went, she had to calmly let the gap open. I think that is a very good idea, and I think that is what happened." Boom drew a firm line between letting a gap open and forcing a rival into the barriers. "It is not in Célia's nature to ride somebody into the barriers. She would never do that," he said. Vollering, who was already up the road when it happened, took the softer view. "I don't know what happened, I didn't see anything," she said. "I'm sure she didn't do it on purpose, and I think also Kasia knows deep in her heart that that kind of thing just happens sometimes in racing. It's the shit part of racing and also the tricky part of racing." Then there is the footage. Fan video from the corner shows Gery on the inside as the group turns onto the climb, then moving across the road and narrowing the space just as Vollering accelerates. Niewiadoma brakes, goes around her, gets back to Vollering, and is dropped again near the summit. The commissaires issued no penalty. Two things can be true at the same time. Sitting on your leader's wheel, taking the racing line and letting a gap open are ordinary parts of bike racing, and a domestique who does that well is simply doing her job. But the same move, made a metre further across the road, turns into a rival being squeezed out of space against steel barriers at full speed. The rulebook only really catches the second version, and only when a camera happens to be pointing at it. So: was this a sharp team using the road it was entitled to, or does a move that leaves a rival braking into the barriers deserve a sanction even when nobody crashes? Where do you stand?