They were four seconds that changed everything. At the summit of Alpe d’Huez, as Kasia Niewiadoma pushed herself across the line, the clock stopped with moments to spare. The narrowest winning margin in the history of the Tour de France had fallen in the favour of the Canyon-SRAM rider. She lifted her bike above her head in glory. Sat on the floor up the road, Demi Vollering, the stage winner and second overall, burst into tears.
Those four seconds have been spoken about a lot since. For Niewiadoma, they’ve been precious – life-changing even – while, for almost a year, the ticking clock has haunted Vollering. To the surprise of neither, as they sit together in a joint press conference on the eve of this year’s Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, those seconds are the topic of conversation again.
