“What a machine!” shouts Kasia Niewiadoma as she warms down outside the Canyon-Sram bus. The Polish rider is elated. She looks around for her team-mates, anyone to celebrate with, desperate to share in the joy of what she just witnessed. She turns to a soigneur beside her, and holds her tight in a hug.
What Niewiadoma had seen was a remarkable show of dominance. On the road into Albi, on day five of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, her 23-year-old team-mate Ricarda Bauernfeind took the biggest win of her career to date. All the teams expected a sprint. Canyon-Sram had other ideas, before Plan A fell apart.
