Demi Vollering lifts her bike above her head in delight.

She has just crossed the line to win her second Tour de France Femmes title in Nice, doing so in the yellow jersey without her competitors in sight.

Back at the FDJ United Suez bus, the team were donning special jerseys of their own. In between a cacophony of horn beeps, high-fives and hugs the staff members were changing into custom-made winners T-shirts with yellow embroidery.

For the French team, the nine days of racing ended in elation but likely also relief. While an emphatic win, with Vollering eventually carving out a 1 minute 18 second lead over her opponents, it had no shortage of challenges along the way.

This is how FDJ won an electrifying edition of the biggest race of the year.

“If we want to win the yellow, we need to be 100 per cent dedicated, we need to accept to suffer a lot.”

After the Tour’s penultimate stage on Saturday — in which Vollering moved into the leader’s jersey for the first time — Stephen Delcourt, the team’s general manager and CEO came out fighting. FDJ Suez were going all in for the final stage.

Even before the start line in Lausanne, for the first of nine stages across Switzerland and France, the French team stood up to be counted. Each rider arrived at the team presentation with a Red Bull helmet, revealing a new major partnership.

Given the energy drink company’s extensive sporting network, including across the men’s peloton — owning team Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe and sponsoring Tom Pidcock — their financial backing could prove invaluable for the team’s progression.

On the bike, Vollering was already attacking. In a stage destined for Lorena Wiebes, the 29-year-old attacked in the final kilometers, reflecting on Sunday she had felt “good feelings already”.

Demi Vollering attacking during stage eight on Saturday. (Tim de Waele / Getty Images)

The ambition was clear, but almost immediately they were threatened with a roadblock. Riders emerged to speak to the media with surgical masks on, and a staff member told The Athletic they were not allowed to shake hands.

Illness had struck.

“We were not lucky,” Delcourt said to TNT Sports after the final stage. “At the beginning of the Tour de France, we fell one rider sick, another rider sick, third rider sick, everybody in a single room.”

One of the major challenges in a grand tour is staying healthy. With riders in close proximity a bug can easily spread — such as the one which afflicted UAE Team Emirates in the men’s Tour.

FDJ Suez were a man down after an ill staff member had left to go home with a fever, while their riders were struggling with the same stomach virus. The measures taken by the French team were strict but effective as Vollering lived to compete another day — taking third in the individual time trial on day four.

The return of the ITT was the first signal of an evolved route, one this year that demanded the GC favourites to be able to compete on a wider variety of terrains.

It was the perfect balance for Vollering, who won four times in the punchier one-day spring season — proving her abilities as one of the most powerful riders.

The route also eliminated one of the Dutchwoman’s biggest rivals, last year’s winner Pauline Ferrand-Prévot. The Frenchwoman had beaten Vollering emphatically on the Col de la Madeleine but the ITT and first truly hilly stage left her an insurmountable five minutes behind.

Pauline Ferrand-Prévot during the fourth stage. (Nicolas Tucat / AFP via Getty Images)

Looking back, that fifth stage was the changing of the guard. As Ferrand-Prévot told reporters her title defence was “over”, Vollering was double fist-pumping a first stage win.

Despite her winning form heading into the Tour, Delcourt said it was the races Vollering didn’t attend that made the difference.

“We decided to stop a lot of races and to delay a lot of dreams for Demi,” he said. “ It’s really not easy because when we decide, for example, you will not participate in the Tour de Suisse at home, you won’t go to the national (championship).

“I really hate me when I call the coach to say she needs time at home and she needs to arrive fresh mentally for the training camp in Tignes. We changed things like this.”

Beyond Vollering’s own strength, what really animated the race was the quality of competition, sweetly demonstrated by the historic first ascent of Mont Ventoux.

FDJ Suez’s relationship with Canyon-SRAM, crucially the rivalry between Vollering and Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney, evolved into the race’s engine — driving whirlwind performances that swept the peloton with them. The pair’s rivalry had been fostered since the 2024 Tour de France Femmes, in which the Pole won on the final day by only four seconds after Vollering was involved in a crash earlier in the race.

Entering stage seven, Marlen Reusser had been in yellow since her ITT win. Only 12 seconds ahead of Vollering, the pair were preoccupied with each other, drawing themselves into a Tour-defining error — they disregarded Niewiadoma-Phinney.

The Pole unleashed a phenomenal ride up Ventoux, capitalizing on her rivals’ hesitation to win by 1:16 and leapfrog into the yellow jersey.

(Nicolas Tucat / AFP via Getty Images)

Delcourt called it an “amazing performance for women’s cycling” and “really beautiful,” but behind his composed words before the next stage hid a chaos that had been unleashed the night before.

FDJ Suez had been aiming for the yellow jersey since Lausanne and couldn’t hide their frustration at it evading them. With only two stages left to race and 15 seconds to close on a fierce rival — something had to change.

The next day the stage profile was engineered towards a breakaway, and there were very few climbs where a GC battle could take place. The route gradually ascended with two categorised climbs in the first half, but the final 95km were largely downhill.

“Yesterday (Friday) night I was really a pain in the ass for the sports director and the coach,” Delcourt said. “ I said to them, ‘We need to search something, we need to analyze every meter of the f***ing final’.

“I searched all the info about the last steep part because I was thinking that it’s not on the route, but there is something. I called all the people that I know on that, who told me, ‘Oh there is that, it’s dangerous’. I called the organizers to be sure they can guarantee the safety part.

“And after I said to the coach, ‘Tell me how we can do this with strategy and data’. We put all in every corner, who we need to be at this place, how many we need to push.”

(Nicolas Tucat / AFP via Getty Images)

It was a military operation, and the gloves were off. “It was the first time from the beginning that I spoke during the briefing, I told them that I want no limits, I want 100 percent dedication and everything to raise up,” he said. “Because if we stay at these levels, we have no chance to win. That’s it. We need to really, really step up.”

And they did. Vollering tested Elisa Longo Borghini and Niewiadoma-Phinney with multiple attacks from 6.7 km out. The pair initially responded, but with 5.5 km to go the Dutchwoman went solo.

“But that is Demi Vollering, she needed to (attack) a third time and when she has one meter, two meters, she’s on a mission,” Delcourt said. “You can look at her face, she is not the same. It’s like she has 14 legs.”

FDJ Suez had driven themselves into the yellow jersey for the first time, but that was when the rivalry took flight beyond the roads. Niewiadoma-Phinney approached domestique Célia Gery at the finish line to accuse her of boxing her into the barriers, leaving her unable to follow Vollering’s attack.

“She (Gery) got a lot of nasty messages, that makes me always very angry, especially because she’s such a young girl still and we should always protect young people,” the FDJ Suez leader said.

Enter 2024, as Vollering pulled up a crucial moment in Niewiadoma-Phinney’s Tour de France Femmes win to compare fair play — when the Pole capitalized on the Dutchwoman crashing in the yellow jersey.

“Two years ago when I was on the ground in this crash she was the one who pulled full gas with her teammate to the finish line and I never blamed her for that because that’s racing,” Vollering told reporters. “I was very disappointed as well and I also lost in that moment my respect.”

If there was not enough action on the roads, the edge provided by the teams’ dispute stoked the final stage’s jeopardy — it had turned personal. Only eight seconds stood between the pair, with Reusser close by at 1:12 down.

The Swiss rider, however, crashed on the second of four Col d’Èze descents — ruling her out completely of contention. By Canyon-SRAM’s measure, at least, this changed the stage.

“(It was) not good for the race and the tactics, and not for Marlen but also not good for us,” directeur sportif Rolf Aldag said. “We wanted to have a hard race start to finish but the third lap stalled a little bit, UAE (Team L’Imad) was on the podium (with Longo Borghini) so there was no need to make it hard to drop somebody because Marlen — who deserved a spot on the podium — was not there anymore.”

After a side-by-side attack and defence between the remaining top two contenders, Vollering pounced and Niewiadoma was relegated to the chase group — one of the most compelling Tours de France Femmes was over.

(Nicolas Tucat / AFP via Getty Images)

Vollering said during the week she wanted to write a “beautiful story”. Bringing a yellow jersey to a French team, it doesn’t get much better than that.

Painter and Meadows were crowned BBC Sports Personality Coach of the Year winners in 2024.

They remain resolutely modest when it comes to their own achievements, while the results continue to speak for themselves.

The demand for their attention is no surprise.

When Hodgkinson joined Painter, she could run 400m in around 57 seconds and 800m in two minutes and 4.26 seconds. Having lowered those personal bests to 51:14 and 1:54.33 respectively over seven years, she has established herself among the sport’s leading stars.

Hunter Bell was in full-time work when she re-established contact with childhood coach Painter at the end of 2022, having not worn a pair of spikes for five years after falling out of love with the sport during her time on a track scholarship in the United States.

The 32-year-old has gone on to win six international medals, including Olympic bronze, world silver and the world indoor 1500m title.

Meadows famously joked “that ship has sailed” upon learning the former English schools champion had got back in touch with Painter.

But Hunter Bell is arguably as good a reference as Hodgkinson of Painter’s talent for developing athletes, evident once again at this year’s World Indoors when the pair celebrated their respective 800m and 1500m triumphs together on the track.

It is not only athletes who are desperate to join the project.

Some 180 applications were received for the role of physiologist alone, with Rachel McCormick willing to uproot her life from Australia to take the job.

Concerns held by Painter and Meadows over whether M11 was “going to be enough” for McCormick to justify the move across the world were soon dispelled.

“When I was applying for the job, I thought ‘I didn’t know there was a dream job out there, but this could genuinely be it’,” says McCormick, who has published more than 50 research papers.

Having joined in late 2025, McCormick has taken time to pore over data from each athlete, measuring how they respond during and after sessions, and how well they recover and adapt, and is now in the first season of using that to feed into training.

“This is an incredibly elite group, and Trevor and Jenny have a history of success, so I haven’t exactly come in here and revolutionised anything,” McCormick says.

“What I’ve been trying to look for are the small wins. Where can I get the biggest gain without changing or drastically shifting anything that they’re already doing?”

In humble surroundings in the Austrian village of Riedau, at 15 years old, Oliver Glasner’s football journey began.

The teenager was not intimidated by being up against players twice his age as he took his first steps in the sixth tier of the domestic league with his local team.

The memory of those days at the modest, riverside Allianz Pramtal Arena tells a tale about Glasner’s character, as he begins a new chapter of his career as Nottingham Forest head coach.

“When I came into the first team in my village, we played with a back three,” Glasner says. “I was the libero. That role normally goes to a 35-year-old who cannot run. My manager found it incredible, because those old guys would listen to me.

“I tried to understand the game and coach the others, to help them. I enjoy doing that. I think that is why I still take over the training sessions now.”

Over the past two years, Glasner has secured Crystal Palace their first major silverware, in the form of the FA Cup, the Community Shield and a UEFA Conference League title.

Since his Forest appointment in July, his new players have painted a picture of a demanding character who expects intensity and focus.

“I never wanted to be a manager,” says Glasner, 52 this month, speaking to outlets including The Athletic at Forest’s pre-season training camp in Vilamoura, Portugal.

“When I finished college, I joined SV Ried. They were in the second league in Austria. I had studied sports and geography — I wanted to be a teacher. When we got promoted in 1995, I decided to accept a professional contract. I was there for 18 years.”

While he was a player — he made 516 appearances for SV Ried — Glasner studied for a degree in economics. It took him seven years to complete, and left a hole in his life when he finished.

“In Austria, we had a winter break,” he says. “There was a coaching course for players. My wife (Bettina) told me I should do it… I think she wanted me out of the house.

“I am a workaholic. I always need to do something. She says it was the worst advice she ever gave, because I am rarely at home. That’s how my career started.”

Glasner began his coaching journey at Red Bull Salzburg, before a return to SV Ried as manager for a single season, followed by a move to another Austrian side, LASK — leading them to top-flight promotion and qualification for the Europa League and then the Champions League.

He next guided German side Wolfsburg into the same two European competitions, before joining fellow Bundesliga outfit Eintracht Frankfurt — where he won the Europa League in 2022, with his side beating Rangers of Scotland in the final on penalties.

The subsequent successes with Palace ensured he was in demand when he found himself looking for a fresh challenge at the end of last season.

Oliver Glasner celebrates Europa League success with Eintracht Frankfurt in 2022 (Alex Grimm/Getty Images)

Forest had made contact with Glasner more than once before, when he was being courted by other clubs around Europe. It required a meeting with their owner Evangelos Marinakis in Athens to finally convince him it was the right job for him.

Glasner told Marinakis there were two things that convinced him to take over at the City Ground.

“‘Number one is there is more potential in the squad’,” recalls Glasner. “‘And number two is you — it’s your ambition, because I am very ambitious. I always want to improve’.

“We had a fantastic dinner and spoke about everything. I had my best times (in football) when we exceeded expectations. I am in the second half of my life, and I don’t want to be in a negative mood. When everyone is happy, life is lovely.

“If we achieve, or maybe overachieve, then, yeah, I have done a good job. And that’s what I get satisfaction from — it’s not lifting a trophy when everyone expects it.”

Glasner realises clubs with greater revenues have a big advantage in terms of chasing silverware and success, even if Forest have made a significant number of signings in recent seasons. But he does not believe there should be a limit on their ambitions.

“Arsenal, City, Liverpool, Chelsea… they can all spend so much,” he says, “but it should not be our goal to play European football once. We should not be a one-hit wonder.

“What do we have to do to become established in the top half? You have to have a strategy — steps you set to help you consistently develop and improve. This is Forest’s fifth season in the Premier League. There have been ups and downs, now we must create the environment and monitor the things that we have to change to help us achieve consistency.”

In July, Forest agreed a club record £116million ($153m) deal to sell England international midfielder Elliot Anderson to Manchester City.

“There is a price where you have to sell — for everybody,” says Glasner. “As a club, when you are ambitious, you sell either due to financial reasons or to become better. It’s a chance, with the money we’ve got (from City), to strengthen. Not in his position: it’s really, really difficult to get a better player. But, if we spend this money wisely, we can improve in a few positions.”

Glasner does not expect to part with any other key figures this summer.

“We all know we can’t sell five (players), because then we get weaker — and we want to become stronger,” he says.

“There will always be a price (for any player), but if we think, ‘If we sell a player and if we invest this money, then we can get better’, then we would accept the offer. But if we think we can’t replace this player, we won’t do it, because we don’t have financial issues.

“Without Morgan Gibbs-White’s goals (15 in the Premier League last season), we would probably have been relegated. He is already at a top level, but I can help him and improve his game — maybe in a few little parts. He has a very high influence (in the team). Morgan has everything. He can finish, he can assist. He’s very important.”

Oliver Glasner thinks he can help improve Morgan Gibbs-White’s game even further (Carlos Rodrigues/Getty Images)

Glasner’s family will remain in Austria for now.

“The boys (Julian and Niklas) will come to the Leeds game,” he says of the opening match of the season at home on Saturday, August 22. “My daughter (Alina) has just turned 16. That’s the toughest part of being a manager. We are here, and the children have their birthday (there). It’s not how you want to be. We try to see each other every second week.

“My daughter is doing track and field and is quite successful. She won the national championships 100m and 200m at under-16, and now she is under-18. She wanted to qualify for the European Championships — she missed it by 0.03 seconds.”

After the recent 2-0 pre-season win against League One neighbours Notts County, Glasner and his staff went to watch England’s World Cup dramatic, 10-goal third-place play-off defeat of France at a sports bar in Nottingham. The coaches also play regular games of padel together and, when asked how he likes to relax, Glasner tells an unexpected story.

“I was lucky to play a few times at Wimbledon — once on the grass,” he says. “There was a season-ticket holder at Crystal Palace (who) is a member at Wimbledon, and he invited me.

“I played with (former British No 1) Kyle Edmund and also with Dominic Thiem, the Austrian player. We had dinner. But at Wimbledon, you need to wear a jacket and tie. Thiem was once No 3 in the world, but he came (to dinner) wearing sneakers. They let us in, but he had to keep his shoes under the table.”

Glasner talks at length about the pitfalls of social media and how he tries to encourage his players to stay away from those platforms.

“The best thing is not to read anything,” he says. “But I still always get some information — my mum, she is 78, she reads everything. She always texts me asking, ‘Is this right?’.”

From growing up in a village with a population of around 2,000, Glasner’s Forest will begin their competitive season in front of over 30,000 spectators at the City Ground in 12 days’ time.

(Harriet Massey/Getty Images)

“I must pinch myself to believe it. But — and I hope it’s how you get to know me — I don’t think I’m somebody (who’s) better (than others),” he says. “When I grew up, my mum was a single mum. We didn’t really have money, but I had everything that I needed. I had a great family, great friends, food to eat.

“Now, yes, I’m in this massive world. But I will never forget my roots. I’m (not) better than somebody else. When I see the waiter carrying his tray, I open the door.

“I can deliver the message to somebody to say, ‘Everything is possible’. If you had told me this (story of his career), I would say, ‘Please visit the doctor’.

“Ten years ago, I was managing in the Austrian second league and now, (after winning) two European trophies, I am (still) the little kid from Riedau. I go to watch my son playing football there and my best friends are still my childhood friends. I never take anything for granted.

“When I go to the City Ground and hear the fans singing before a game, I will get goosebumps. When I was a kid, I lived close to the border, so we had three German and two Austrian TV channels. You could only watch international football. That was it. And now, wow, I’m part of this.

“It’s been an amazing journey.”