A high-speed crash in stage 1 of the UAE Tour Women 2025 saw over 30 riders go down, and at least one, Letizia Paternoster (Liv AlUla Jayco), had to abandon the race.
Stephen Delcourt, general manager at FDJ-Suez, blamed riders' behaviour for the wreck, which sent two of his riders Coralie Demay and Alessia Vigilia - to the hospital with injuries.
"It's the first stage of a race in the beginning of the season and I have never understood why a rider takes risks like this at a moment where there is no interest," said Delcourt.
"Now we have riders at the hospital, maybe two, one for a collarbone and other elbow. It's really damaging that a rider takes risks like this.
"It's just the only part of my job that I hate. When you have a crash, you go to the hospital, and you see your rider who worked really hard all the winter to prepare, and they arrived, and boom finished."
Video of the incident appeared to show the usual 'washing machine' effect, with a line of riders moving up the right side of the peloton and a slowing on the left, with a Jayco-AlUla rider appearing to touch wheels with the rider in front and crash, bringing down a huge group of riders behind.
"Organisers for a race like this are really professional; they do [everything] for the rider, so you can't complain about that; it's just a problem of behaviour," Delcourt said.
"If we want to change the future of our sport, the riders need to change their mentality. If this doesn't change, it's sure the next generation won't want to ride in a bike competition."
Looking towards the upcoming stages, Delcourt was hopeful the team would have better days but could be down to only three riders as the team also had another rider who was sick during the night.
"It's not a good beginning for us; we would have preferred a positive start, but tomorrow is another day," Delcourt said.
"We have no big sprinter. We just want to play with Vittoria Guazzini, but she crashed also, and after we want to play Saturday with Juliette Labous."
Also among those who were involved in the crash were Lizzie Deignan (Lidl-Trek) and Alison Jackson (EF Education-Oatly).
"Everyone crashed in front of me, and behind me, I was in a sandwich in the middle," said Deignan.
"I think when it's a day when everyone is waiting for the sprint, people can lose focus a bit. I hit my head, but my head felt OK. I'm experienced enough to know if something is seriously wrong, so you have to throw yourself back into it; otherwise, you end up being scared."
Jackson also went down and is now sporting road rash across her right shoulder and elbow. "We saw some echelons, and people started to get nervous," said Jackson. "It was a nervous peloton, especially with the win,d which is a key point for everyone.
"I'm a bit sore and a bit disappointed. The team was really good to come back from the crash still motivated for the final sprint."
Lorena Wiebes took back-to-back wins on stage 2 at the UAE Tour Women as the GC battle kicked off in the crosswinds as the peloton hit a record-breaking average speed of 48.407 km/h.
