In a dramatic closing stage on Alpe d’Huez, Kasia Niewiadoma grit her teeth and pushed through to win her first Tour de France Femmes title by just four seconds.
Despite finishing the stage in fourth after the famously punishing climb, coming in 1 minute and 1 second behind last year’s winner Demi Vollering, the Polish rider did enough in the final few kilometres to cling onto the yellow jersey. Having “lost the faith”, Niewiadoma went on to hold her bike aloft as the new champion.
“It’s so crazy to be honest because the whole stage was such a crazy rollercoaster,” said Canon-SRAM rider Niewiadoma, who was understandably emotional after learning she had won it, at the summit. “I had a really bad moment on [the Col du Glandon climb] and then all of a sudden I was able to kind of rebuild myself, refresh.
“I knew that I just had to pace myself smart and give my best in the last 5ks just to minimise the gap as much as possible. And to be honest, once again I lost the faith that I could still do it. Then on the radio they were screaming so much in the last 2ks.
“To be honest I’ve gone through such a terrible time on this climb. I hated everything, to then arrive at the finish line and learning that I won the Tour de France, which is insane.”
This was the first time since 1992 an elite women’s peloton took on Alpe d’Huez, and SD-Worx-Protime’s Vollering made her move on Glandon, dropping the yellow jersey rider on her way to a second stage win of the Tour. But it wasn’t enough to hold off Niewiadoma in the end.
Only six seconds behind Voller in the final standings and second at the Alpe d’Huez finish was Pauliena Rooijakkers, who said of her classification: “Third. I can be really, really happy. I just sat in Demi’s wheel [on the last stage] and I was afraid if I didn’t do that”.
Mariannes Vos of Visma-Lease a Bike took the green jersey, Justine Ghekiere had the polka dot jersey as Queen of the Mountains, and Puck Pieterse of Fenix-Deceuninck wore white as the winner of the young rider’s classification.
Meanwhile in the second stage of the men’s Vuelta a España, Australian Kaden Groves sprinted to claim victory as Wout van Aert took the red jersey as overall leader.
Groves kept Visma-Lease a Bike’s Van Aert at bay in a frantic finish that saw Ineos Grenadiers’ rider Josh Tarling crash into a wall – though he recovered well enough to finish, even if his tattered jersey showed the after affects.
Having made the first move but eventually losing out in the closing sprint to Groves, Van Aert said of the finish: “Of course, I wanted to win this stage, my team did a really good job to make it a bunch sprint so it’s unfortunate to arrive second, but today I knew that finishing in the first three meant the red jersey, so after all it’s a good day.”
Stage winner Groves said: “It’s a really nice way to start this Vuelta. It’s been a hard year for myself, not having a win yet, but I came here super motivated to change that, and I’ve got to thank my team for a really strong ride today.”
Tomorrow’s race will be the third and final stage of the Vuelta held in Portugal, as they ride from Lousã to Castelo Branco. The first mountain stage of the race then begins in Spain, starting at Plasencia on day four.