For a rider who is almost known for always being the runner-up, never the winner, it seems wild to think that Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney is potentially on the cusp of becoming the first ever two-time Tour de France Femmes victor. And yet, that's exactly where she stands after a phenomenal day on Mont Ventoux.
When the Polish Canyon-SRAM rider attacked some 10km from the summit of the 'Bald Mountain', many onlookers would have been thinking it was too early, too bold and too typically Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney to survive to the finish.
In fact, this might have been exactly what won it for her. Marlen Reusser (Movistar) and Demi Vollering (FDJ United-SUEZ) played chicken behind, perhaps underestimating Niewiadoma-Phinney's ability and only focusing on each other. In the end, they only marked each other out, both saying goodbye to the yellow jersey as Niewiadoma-Phinney soared to a historic stage win – her first at the Tour de France Femmes – and back into the yellow jersey.
'Mindblowing', 'magical' and 'beautiful' were all words she used to describe her victory on stage 7 and the GC lead, after plenty of tears on the podium. It was clear that winning on the Tour de France's most iconic climb – whatever it may mean for the rest of the race – was extremely special for her and her career.
"That win is like a payback for all the second and third places I did in my life," she said after the stage.
"I’ve been trying to imagine it for the last two months, so I’ve had it in my mind. I came to do the recon with my friends, with my husband, and we just had such a beautiful fun ride, and we were dreaming. We were doing the lead-outs into the final, we were just playing around so I feel like that just evolved so many good feelings in me and I just knew I wanted to repeat it. I’m still speechless."
The 31-year-old's move, still in the forest of Ventoux, was early, but it wasn't impulsive or born from overexcitement, it was calculated, and her calculations worked.
"I knew I had to go away before 6kms to go, because I knew it was like, not flat, but less steep, and I knew that if I had a gap there then they would gamble because we had a headwind and no one wants to ride in a headwind," she explained. "So that worked out perfectly."
It worked more than perfectly, with her initial small gap ballooning out to well over a minute in a matter of kilometres, eventually winning by 1:16 over Vollering and 1:46 over Reusser – enough to put her into the yellow jersey with two stages to go.
Can Niewiadoma-Phinney take yellow home?
Everyone surely remembers the tension of her victory in 2024, when she won by just four seconds as the race was decided on Alpe d'Huez, and whilst this edition of the race won't be decided by another mammoth climb, it may well be decided by seconds once again.
Despite her solid winning margin on Ventoux, the time Niewiadoma-Phinney had already lost – largely in the time trial – means that she goes into stage 8 with only a 15-second advantage over Vollering and with Reusser at 39 seconds.
As much as Niewiadoma-Phinney probably just wanted to celebrate her victory on Friday night, attention very quickly turned to whether she can wear yellow on Sunday evening in Nice too, and she knows that big challenges lie ahead this weekend.
"I'm super, super happy that we have a strong team," she said. "We have Antonia [in 5th overall and leading the youth classification] that shows what an incredible climber she is. So I definitely feel confident having her on my side. I definitely expect a massive fight for basically everything – bonus seconds, sprints, everything – because the gap is so small."
Anything can still happen, but so far Canyon-SRAM have been able to execute their Tour de France to perfection, with Rolf Aldag explaining to reporters post-stage that even Niewiadoma-Phinney's attack was planned to the metre. With that in mind, their goal remains the same this weekend as it has been every day.
"The first day our goal was to win the Tour de France, the second day the presentation was like 'win the Tour de France', third day, 'win the Tour de France'. After the time trial we said 'OK, we lost only a minute, well the goal is to win the Tour de France'," Aldag explained.
"So this morning, it was like 'How do you make this happen?' and that's another question, but you have to agree on why we are here. That's winning the Tour de France."
The desire and ambition will obviously only intensify now that their rider is actually wearing the yellow jersey, but Aldag had complete faith in the team's plan and preparation, which so far has seen Niewiadoma-Phinney out-climbing almost every rider in the bunch, including defending champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike).
"We didn't win yet because there's still some kilometres to ride, but at least we showed that this was always the plan and that we want to go for it and that Kasia and her coach believe in this and made the work," he said.
"It's not really that you write it up in November and say 'Hey, let's win the Tour de France' and then you get lazy and you don't do the training and you don't eat the right food and you don't do the altitude .... This is Kasia, she commits 100%, then you can easily live with the result because you know you can't do better. The outcome is the outcome, you can't do better, because she will be perfectly prepared."
All eyes will be hotly anticipating the outcome, though, with stage 8 perhaps not the biggest concern – though teams might still make it a fight – but stage 9 is set to offer up final-day fireworks with a punchy 99km circuit around Nice and the Col d'Èze.
While Saturday is perhaps the lesser of the two challenges remaining, Aldag was completely aware of the threats that lie ahead, and what it will take for Niewiadoma-Phinney to become the first rider in five editions to deliver repeat victories at the Tour.
"So tomorrow we just see what's going to happen, ride in the front, stay in the front, make sure nobody from the top 10 goes anywhere," he explained.
We're going to defend with everything that we have and everyone that we have.
Rolf Aldag, Canyon-SRAM
Sunday, then, will be the day that this Tour is well and truly decided, but Canyon-SRAM have every reason to be confident and assured going into the final weekend in the driver's seat.
"Then of course Nice is going to be a big, big battle, but then always keep in mind that it feels like we might have the third or fourth strongest [rider] in the race with Antonia Niedermaier, so let's see how that unfolds," Aldag said.
"We know Demi is super explosive, I would have loved to have had 40 seconds, not 15 [on GC] but it is what it is and we deal with it. So theoretically anything could happen, even with bonus sprints Demi would get there, but we're going to defend with everything that we have and everyone that we have, and I'm pretty sure that the team will not sit up or give up. None of the riders will like to sit in the back and see what's going to happen. it's all-in for trying to win the Tour."
Support our unrivalled coverage of the Tour de France Femmes and women's cycling by subscribing to Cyclingnews. In return, you get unlimited access to high-quality journalism, with breaking news, race analysis, and expert insight from inside the women's peloton. Plus, the Cyclingnews app lets you follow the action wherever you go! Join today.
