close
close

Katarzyna Niewiadoma wins the Tour de France in an epic showdown in Alpe d’Huez

Katarzyna Niewiadoma wins the Tour de France in an epic showdown in Alpe d’Huez
Posted on | Posted on Theodore

The third edition of the Tour de France Femmes ended on Sunday on the mighty Alpe d’Huez and developed into an epic, gripping stage, a duel between 2023 champion Demi Vollering, yellow jersey wearer Katarzyna Niewiadoma and wild card in the peloton, Pauliena Rooijakkers. Having lost sight of Vollering earlier on the Glandon mountain, Niewiadoma gave it her all and defended four seconds of her 1:15 lead over the Dutchwoman to claim the biggest victory of her career. Vollering won at the end of the day, but the Pole took the Tour victory.

The Pole fought with all means for her yellow jersey.

The course

It seems as if the last stage of the Tour de France Femmes was all about the mountain finish on the legendary Alpe d’Huez, 14 km with a 7.9 percent gradient and 21 hairpin bends, but there was also the other climb of the day, rated HC, the Col du Glandon, which was also not easy at 20 km out of 7.2 km.

The GC situation

The Polish yellow jersey had a 27-second lead over Puck Pieterse and a 37-second lead over Cédrine Kerbaol. After finishing third in the first two editions, could Niewiadoma score the biggest triumph of her career in the same season that she won La Fleche Wallonne? Could last year’s champion Vollering make up for the 1:15 she lost with a late crash on stage 5?

Before the first climb, the Category 2 Col de Tamié, QOM leader and Saturday’s stage winner Justine Ghekiere perhaps felt uncertain with Pieterse 16 points behind her and attacked with 21 other riders, including Canadian Olivia Baril. Ghekiere took the five points and the breakaway reached the 42km flat section before Glandon with a two-minute lead.

Baril crossed the line in third place in the day’s intermediate sprint, adding 17 points to her two. Peloton work by Fenix-Deceuninck, FDJ-Suez and Canyon-SRAM widened the gap to 1:20 on the first slopes of Glandon. The breakaways began to lose members and time. Ghekiere was unable to score any more QOM points on Sunday. With 7 km of climbs left, only seven breakaways remained, with a 1:05 lead.

The yellow jersey group was able to take the lead again. Niamh Fisher-Black put Vollering under pressure and the yellow jersey group lost the fourth, fifth and sixth riders in the overall standings.

With 2.3 km to go from the Glandon and 54 km of the day remaining, Vollering attacked and Niewiadoma could not keep up.

Vollering loses the yellow jersey to Glandon.

Vollering reached the summit with seventh-placed Pauliena Rooijakkers (+1:12) and Austrian Valentina Cavallar, 55 seconds ahead of Niewiadoma. Interestingly, it was Rooijakkers who won the virtual yellow jersey on the long descent. At the valley floor, Vollering was 1:15 ahead of Niewiadoma.

Alpe d’Huez

The seven-rider chase managed to reduce the gap to the two Dutch riders at the front. The lead was 45 seconds when the road started to climb.

The yellow jersey starts in Alpe d’Huez.

Soon the yellow jersey was only accompanied by ninth-placed Evita Muzic and twelfth-placed Gaia Realini. With 10 km to go, the gap to the race leader was 1:05. It was desperately close. Time tipped in favor of the Dutch duo. The Fenix ​​rider had to work hard to respond to the attacks of the SD Worx rider.

With 4 km to go, Sunday’s main protagonists were 55 seconds apart. Three kilometers: 48 seconds. Rooijakkers attacked Vollering and last year’s champion did everything he could to respond. Behind him, Muzik set the tone and left Realini behind.

As the duo passed under the red dragon, the gap was 52 seconds. That’s why it’s such a gripping sit. Vollering beat her compatriot in the sprint to claim the maximum number of bonus seconds. The yellow jersey sprinted towards the finish line with Muzic having grabbed the final bonus seconds. She ran out of steam in the final 50 meters but clung doggedly to her greatest achievement.


2024 Tour de France Femmes Stage 8
1) Demi Vollering (Netherlands/SD Worx-Protime) 4:34
2) Pauliena Rooijakkers (Netherlands/Fenix-Deceuninck) +0:04
3) Evita Muzic (France/FDJ-Suez) +1:01

2024 Tour de France Femmes Final GC
1) Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Poland/Canyon-SRAM) 24:36:07
2) Demi Vollering (Netherlands/SD Worx-Protime) +0:04
3) Pauliena Rooijakkers (Netherlands/Fenix-Deceuninck) +0:10

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *