In an epic battle that see-sawed back and forth up Alpe d’Huez on Sunday, Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon//SRAM) prevailed over Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime) to win the Tour de France Femmes by the narrowest margin ever in a Grand Tour – 4 seconds.
Vollering and Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix Deceuninck) tried mightily to take time out of Niewiadoma, who trailed behind at times by almost a minute, but in the end their efforts were not enough to shake the GC leader even with the time bonuses they took at the finish for their 1st and 2nd places on the stage.
For Niewiadoma the victory took a bit of time to sink in.
“Four seconds seems magical now. I’m super happy, and to be honest, I feel like, throughout my whole career, there were so many times that I would miss out on victories because of something, and I feel like this was perfect for me and my team.”
Niewiadoma knew it would come down to a matter of seconds in the end between her and Vollering
“I knew that the gap was around a minute. I was sure they were pushing hard, but we were also pushing hard. There was nothing else I could do other than my best. At that point, it was a crazy sufferfest. I went all out, and I just wanted to finish because it was terrible.”
Last year’s winner, Vollering, was visibly disappointed at the finish with second place.
“I feel really empty after today’s effort but of course, also I’m a bit disappointed that I couldn’t win the yellow jersey by just four seconds, that’s a bit sour for me at the moment. Of course, there are a lot of ifs. If I would jump on the bike a little bit earlier [after crashing]. If I would win in Liège from Puck [Pieterse]. If yesterday I attacked a bit earlier. There are so many ifs but you don’t buy anything from ifs so I can think very long about that but it only makes me sad.”
STAGE 8 HIGHLIGHTS
RESULTS
Stage 8: Le Grand-Bornand > Alpe d’Huez (149.9km)
Results powered by FirstCycling.com
