After winning the stage on Saturday and moving up to second on GC, only eight seconds down, Elise Chabbey and her FDJ-Suez teammates decided to put it all on the line to try and win the general classification on the third and final stage of the Female Romandie Tour.
And the plan worked, though Chabbey has moments of doubt on the final climb, which she shared with her teammate Juliette Labous.
“On the last climb, I wasn’t feeling well. I told Juliette, we have to change plans,” Chabbey said. “I’m not used to being the leader. It’s hard for me to handle the pressure, too. She was really great. She told me, ‘listen, you have nothing to lose, enjoy yourself. ’”
“The girls motivated me, they did a huge job, and in fact that’s also what a team is about, it’s about motivating each other and when we have problems to be there for the other.”
When Chabbey joined the French Women’s WorldTour squad for the 2025 season, she said at the time that it was so that the “team can help me get the better of myself and get a big race win.”
“I think the bet paid off,” the 32-year-old rider said after the stage on Sunday. But winning is not everything for the medical doctor and Olympian in both kayaking and cycling.
“I always say that I ride a bike because I love it, so even if I don’t win, it’s not that bad, but it’s true that it feels good to win from time to time. I’m a rider who’s always there, but I rarely win. I was talking to Juliette because she wasn’t feeling very well, and we said to each other, actually, this sport is so hard because we’re at the start, we all do our best work, and in the end, it’s so hard to win for everyone. I think you have to appreciate it.”
Chabbey has had quite a successful summer, winning the mountain classification at the Tour de France Femmes, and a stage win and the overall at Romandie, but she admitted that it does not change her status on the team. A status that she’s quite happy to have.
“I don’t think so. I think we’re the best team in the world right now, and we still have Demi [Vollering]who is our leader. I also love working for her, I love working for the leaders,” she said.
“Being a leader is not a status that I really like. I had fun today, and then that it works is pretty crazy but it’s really difficult as a position. People sometimes don’t realise it. I appreciate my role in the team. This role of an aggressive rider trying things, that’s also what I like in cycling, and it’s not necessarily the general for the Grand Tours.”
