Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) has won the 2024 Tour de France Femmes, keeping a four-second gap over Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime) who attacked on the Col du Glandon and won the stage in Alpe d'Huez ahead of Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix-Deceuninck).
Niewiadoma started the finishing climb 43 seconds behind the front duo and fought hard on the climb to defend her lead. On the last kilometres, Évita Muzic (FDJ-Suez) was the only one who could follow Niewiadoma's pace, and the Frenchwoman outsprinted Niewiadoma for third place, 1:01 minutes behind the stage winner.
In the final GC, Niewiadoma wins by four seconds over Vollering and ten seconds over Rooijakkers.
“It’s so crazy, the whole stage was such a rollercoaster. I had a really bad moment on the Glandon but I was able to rebuild myself on the descent. And I was so lucky to have Lucinda Brand, I think we at Canyon-SRAM have to say thank you to Lidl-Trek because they did a great job also for us, bringing us closer to Demi and Pauliena.”
Describing her bad moment on the Col du Glandon in more detail, Niewiadoma continued: “I felt terrible at that moment, mentally and physically. On the descent, all of a sudden, I got my power back. It’s so weird how sometimes it happens, you crack, but then you just need a moment of relaxation and you get your power back. I just ate everything I had in my pockets, drank a lot of fluids, and then I thought, ‘okay, I’m ready to go again,’” she said.
“On Alpe d’Huez, I knew I had to pace myself and keep my best for the last five kilometres, just to minimise the gap as much as possible. To be honest, once again I lost the faith that I could do it. In the radio, they were screaming so much in the last two kilometres, I went through such a terrible time on this climb, I hated everything, to then finish and learn that I won the Tour de France is insane,” Niewiadoma said.
“It’s mindblowing because there are so many people I’m really grateful for, starting with my husband, my family, my friends, my whole team, and my coach Nate who put a lot of work to prepare me for that, and quite often he’s not really mentioned, so a big thank you especially to him. This victory goes to so many people who contributed to that victory,” Niewiadoma gave thanks to everyone who helped her along the way.
At the end of the interview, the 2024 Tour de France Femmes winner became almost philosophical, looking back at the 2023 edition and the recent Olympic road race.
“Life is insane. Last year I lost second place by less than a second, so now winning by a couple of seconds, I feel like, it’s all thanks to God who always has a plan for me, and, as life goes, there’s always something happening for certain reasons. I think that last year’s third place was there to reward me with this victory. And two weeks ago, I was so disappointed getting stuck behind the crash during the Olympics, now, due to a crash, I got some extra time. You never wish anyone any sort of bad luck, but it happens to everyone. This time, it didn’t happen to us, I’m grateful for that. I feel like all the stars aligned for my team and myself this week."
How it unfolded
On the 149.9km stage from Le Grand-Bornand to Alpe d’Huez, Justine Ghekiere (AG Insurance-Soudal) was part of a large breakaway of 23 riders and won the QOM sprint on the Col de Tamié – which was enough for her to claim the overall title in the polka dot jersey classification.
SD Worx-Protime had four riders in the breakaway with Mischa Bredewold, Blanka Vas, Lorena Wiebes, and Christine Majerus, leaving only Niamh Fisher-Black in the peloton with Vollering, a clear sign that the team had an aggressive plan for the stage.
Wiebes won the intermediate sprint, but as the 19.7km climb up the Col du Glandon began with 71.1km to go, the gap was less than 1:30 minutes as Canyon-SRAM, Fenix-Deceuninck, and FDJ-Suez had chased in the peloton.
Mavi García (Liv-AlUla-Jayco) attacked from the bunch but never made it to the front. Instead, the Spaniard was passed by Valentina Cavallar (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) when the Austrian climber attacked seven kilometres from the top. Cavallar quickly reached the front group and continued solo, only about 20 seconds ahead of what remained of the peloton where Fisher-Black was setting the pace, reducing the group to 12 riders.
Other than the New Zealander, these were Vollering, Niewiadoma, Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck), Rooijakkers, Gaia Realini (Lidl-Trek), Cédrine Kerbaol (Ceratizit-WNT), Muzic, Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal), and Marion Bunel (St Michel-Mavic-Auber 93) as well as Brand and Erica Magnaldi (UAE Team ADQ) who had been in the breakaway earlier.
Vollering launched her attack 2.5km from the pass, exploding the group, and unlike Rooijakkers, Niewiadoma could not follow the acceleration. They soon caught Cavallar while Niewiadoma continued to struggle.
Vollering led the other two up the remainder of the climb, and at the top, Cavallar, Vollering, and Rooijakkers were 58 seconds ahead of a chase group consisting of Gigante, Niewiadoma, Muzic, Realini, and Brand. Kerbaol was 17 seconds further back but returned to the chase group on the descent.
Up front, Vollering went all-out, dropping Cavallar and putting Rooijakkers on the limit, with the Fenix-Deceuninck climber having to let Vollering go several times before coming back. Kerbaol attacked out of the chase group, was caught on a short climb in the middle of the descent, but went again soon after, followed only by Niewiadoma.
As they reached the valley, Vollering and Rooijakkers were 1:15 minutes ahead of Kerbaol and Niewiadoma, putting Rooijakkers into the virtual lead as she had started the stage two seconds ahead of Vollering.
Nonetheless, Rooijakkers let Vollering do almost the entire work on the flat towards the finishing climb. Brand, Realini, Muzic, and Cavallar returned to Niewiadoma and Kerbaol after the descent, and Brand did almost the entire chase work, occasionally helped by Niewiadoma, to reduce the group’s deficit to 43 seconds at the foot of the 13.8km climb to Alpe d’Huez.
Niewiadoma set a hard pace from the start, quickly dropping an exhausted Brand as well as Cavallar and Kerbaol. Realini and Muzic did go to the front once in a while, but by and large it was a pursuit race between Vollering and Niewiadoma as Rooijakkers did not take any turns until halfway up the climb, and even then, she only went through the lead once before settling into position on Vollering’s wheel again.
The time difference went up and down: With 9km to go, it was 1:10 minutes – adding the ten-second time bonification for the stage winner, this would have won Vollering the GC since she started the stage 1:15 minutes behind. At the 5km mark, Niewiadoma had reduced the gap to 58 seconds again, and 3km from the finish, it was down to 44 seconds.
Rooijakkers tried an attack with 2.5km to go, but Vollering was attentive and followed her move. Muzic attacked in the chase group, dropping Realini, but Niewiadoma could follow the Frenchwoman.
At the flamme rouge, Vollering and Rooijakkers were 54 seconds ahead again, and Vollering outsprinted Rooijakkers to win the stage. Niewiadoma gave it all on the last kilometre to minimise her time loss, enabling Muzic to outsprint her for third place and its four bonus seconds, but as they finished 1:01 minutes behind Vollering, Niewiadoma won the GC by four seconds – the closest winning margin of any Grand Tour ever.
Vollering will find little consolation in the fact that she was awarded both the stage and the overall combativity prize. Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) won the green jersey while Pieterse, 11th overall, finished her stage racing debut by winning the white jersey for the best U23 rider.
Results
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