UAE Team L'IMAD began the 2026 Tour de France Femmes with a seemingly unclear leadership strategy and a host of riders appearing ready to assume the mantle.
A week on, as the race reached Mont Ventoux, the hierarchy couldn't be clearer, and with their embarrassment of riches resulting in three riders among the GC top eight, things are going swimmingly for the team.
The team has not yet hit the heights of last summer, when, down to four riders and with leader Elisa Longo Borghini out of the race, they took home three stage wins as Dominika Włodarczyk shone with fourth overall. Still, the Polish champion now lies eighth after Friday's seventh stage to Ventoux, while her teammates, Longo Borghini – third on the day – and Paula Blasi, are in fourth and seventh.
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"A huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders," Blasi said after racing to fifth at the top of Ventoux, after she and Longo Borghini had led a charging chase group behind attackers Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon-SRAM), Demi Vollering (FDJ United-SUEZ), and Marlen Reusser (Movistar).
"I think these first few days I've really struggled with my position, and I really lost a lot of self-confidence. I think today it wasn't the best day, but I think we've managed to pull through.
"We've fought hard, and in the end, we've seen that we're always right up there on the big mountains."
The run-up to the Tour de France Femmes brought with it rumours that UAE would head to France with two-time Giro d'Italia winner Longo Borghini and La Vuelta Femenina champion Blasi as co-leaders.
Blasi, apparently bound for Movistar next year in another wrinkle to the tale, then said she would ride as a domestique, while their teammate Brodie Chapman later told Cyclingnews that Longo Borghini and Włodarczyk would lead the squad.
The team denied any reports of tension, as did Longo Borghini, while Blasi, speaking to TV3 Catalunya on Ventoux, described the toll the reports have taken on her. She was visited by her coach and brother ahead of the stage, the pair helping her race on after what has been a challenging week.
"Mentally, it might not have been my best day, and cycling is a lot mental too. There are a lot of things off the bike, and sometimes things just build up," she said.
"We're cyclists, but we're human too, aren't we? And it just became a massive ball of stress, and in the end, that shows, doesn't it? Mentally. In the end, I managed to handle it as best I could, and now I'm much calmer."
Blasi, who crossed the line in fifth, was quick to hug Longo Borghini, after the pair had successfully worked their way back to now-former yellow jersey Marlen Reusser.
"Without hardly speaking, we understood each other. I think that's the lovely thing – we're very similar in that respect: competitive, but honest," Blasi said of their effort.
"We both found ourselves in a situation where we knew that either we both gave it our all or we wouldn't catch the leaders. Getting a podium finish in the Tour is brilliant. Thank you."
Their teammate Włodarczyk finished eighth on the stage and dropped two places on GC to eighth. Speaking just after crossing the line, she said that she was pleased with how she and the team had tackled the Giant of Provence.
"I'm very proud of my effort. I did what I could," she said.
"Maybe I could have stayed a bit longer with the girls, and then I could have had the group in front of me, but you never know. On such a brutal climb, you just need to pace yourself. So I just paced myself, and it is what it is."
Ventoux itself, included in the race for the first time, was "epic, brutal, iconic," she told Cyclingnews, singling out the wind blowing in the face on the mountain's famous exposed upper section.
She also took time to congratulate Niewiadoma-Phinney on her victory and yellow jersey on what was a momentous day for the Tour.
"Kasia is not from my team, but she's Polish, so it's also really nice. If Kasia won, then it's super nice," she said.
"And I guess it was a good day for us [at UAE]. The race is not over until Nice, you know?"
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