Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon//SRAM) has won the 2024 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift after a titanic fight with Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime) on the famous Alpe d'Huez.
Vollering won the stage in a two-up sprint with Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix Deceuninck), but the gap to Niewiadoma, who was fourth, was not enough to overhaul the Pole in the overall standings.
SD Worx-Protime's reigning champion had attacked on the penultimate climb of the Col du Glandon, opening up an advantage of more than a minute over the yellow jersey.
It was the first time since 1992 that a professional women's peloton had taken to the Alpe d'Huez. As the riders made their way up the famous 21 hairpins, the gap swung between being enough for Vollering to take yellow and then not. In the end, Niewiadoma crossed the line 1:01 behind Vollering to win the Tour de France Femmes by just four seconds.
Only ten seconds separated the final overall podium, with Rooijakkers claiming third. Evita Muzic (FDJ-SUEZ) was third on the stage and finished the race fourth overall.
"It's so mind blowing," a jubilant Niewiadoma said after the stage. "There are so many people I'm really thankful and grateful for; starting with my husband, my family, my whole team, 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 for him especially now."
"This victory goes to so many people that contributed."
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At points throughout the day, it looked as though Vollering would open up enough of a gap to rip the yellow jersey from Niewiadoma's grasp. The Pole couldn't respond to the reigning champion's acceleration on the Glandon, but fought admirably over the following almost 60 kilometres.
"It's so crazy to be honest because the whole stage was such a crazy rollercoaster. I had a really bad moment on Glandon and then all of a sudden I was able to kind of rebuild myself, refresh," Niewiadoma said.
"I knew that I just had to pace myself smart and give my best in the last five-Ks just to like minimise the gap as much as possible. And to be honest, once again I lost the faith that I could still do it."
"Then in the radio they were screaming so much in the last two-Ks. To be honest I've gone through such a terrible time on this climb. I hated everything to then arriving to the finish line and learning that I won the Tour de France which is insane."
(Image credit: Getty Images)
how it happened
The battle to take home the yellow jersey of the 2024 Tour de France Femmes couldn't have taken place on more storied grounds. Although Alpe d'Huez is famous for many historic moments men's cycling, the women's peloton have seldom navigated the hallowed hairpins.
The final stage where all was to be won was not all about the Alpe. This was by far the hardest stage of the 2024 Tour and one of the hardest the women's peloton has faced in recent years. A lumpy beginning preceded the Col du Glandon, a hair off 20 kilometres in length at 7.2%, the Glandon would play its own part in today's final showdown.
The pressure was on Canyon//SRAM coming into the stage as they looked to defend Kasia Niewiadoma's yellow jersey. That pressure multiplied as a 22-strong break wen up the road just before the first categorised test of the day, the Col de Tamié.
That group included four from SD Worx-Protime as they hoped to set Demi Vollering up for an attack to close her 1:15 deficit and snatch the jersey away on the final day. Also there were four riders within three minutes of the lead: Justine Ghekiere (AG Insurance-Soudal), Liane Lippert (Movistar), Lucinda Brand (Lidl-Trek) and Erica Magnaldi (UAE Team ADQ). Meanwhile Niewiadoma's team-mates stuck alongside their leader, working on the front.
Stage 7 winner Ghekiere, who had a lead of 16 points in the mountain classification coming into the day, took maximum points on the Tamié and also sat in the virtual lead with 100km to go and the breakaway's lead around 2:30.
That gap came down to just 90 seconds at the bottom of the Glandon as Liv AlUla Jayco began to help Canyon//SRAM with the work on the front of the peloton. The gap continued to tumble as riders dropped out of the leading group.
The attention of the riders lay ahead on Alpe d'Huez, but the Glandon deserves its own respect and could create opportunities. Mavi Garcia (Liv-AlUla-Jayco) attacked with 10km of the Glandon to go as FDJ-SUEZ took responsibility for the chasing behind. Garcia was soon caught and passed by the fast-moving Valentina Cavallar (Arkéa-B&B Hotels), who bridged across to the front and moved ahead solo.
The pace was on in the peloton, though. Niamh Fisher-Black (SD WOrx-Protime) took on the pacing with Vollering in her wheel. Niewiadoma and Pieterse were right behind as the group shrank to around 15. The yellow jersey was isolated in the favourites' group with 5km left of the Glandon. The likes of Juliette Labous, Thalita de Jong and Shirin van Anrooij, all sitting high on GC, were distanced before the very steepest sections of the mountain.
The anticipated move from Vollering came with 2.5km of the Glandon to go. The yellow jersey was immediately dropped. Only Pauliena Rooijakkers could go with Vollering.
Niewiadoma hung in with Lucinda Brand, Evita Muzic and Sarah Gigante. Gaia Realini was initially stuck between the two groups but was reeled in by Gigante as she worked on the front of the yellow jersey group. Puck Pieterse, sitting second overall coming into the stage, faded badly after a sensational week of racing for the multi-discipline star. Third place Cedrine Kerbaol was around ten seconds down on the chasing group at this point but made her way back.
Vollering quickly bridged to Cavallar with Rooijakkers glued to her wheel. The gap ballooned out to just under a minute by the top of the climb with 51 kilometres of the stage still to go and droplets of rain beginning to fall onto the tarmac.
Ahead of the riders was a 20km descent before 15km of valley road. Vollering pushed on down the fast Glandon descent, distancing Cavallar and extending her advantage to the yellow jersey to around 90 seconds at the bottom.
Rooijakkers, who came into the stage two seconds ahead of Vollering on GC, worked with the reigning champion on the approach to the Alpe d'Huez. The chasing yellow jersey group was seven strong and edged their way closer to the leaders. Lucinda Brand, working for Realini, drove them on. The yellow jersey's deficit was just 45 seconds at the foot of the final climb.
Niewiadoma continued the chase at the bottom of the final climb of the 2024 Tour de France Femmes. Just Muzic and Realini went with her as the gap to the front stayed steady in the opening kilometre. However, as the kilometres ticked on, the gap slowly grew and was soon back up to a minute with 10km left, but the pair needed more to contend for the maillot jaune.
Niewiadoma fought on and held the gap to Vollering. With 5km to go, the advantage began to dip below the minute-mark again. It was clear that Vollering's energy was slipping away as the yellow jersey began to reel her in. The gap stalled at 50 seconds as Rooijakkers began to contribute more to the efforts in front, but Niewiadoma fought on.
Vollering came around Rooijakkers in the final few hundred metres to take her second stage win of the race, but it wasn't enough to take her second yellow jersey. Niewiadoma drove on right to the line to take the narrowest victory in the short history of the Tour de France Femmes.
Results
Tour de France Femmes 2024 stage eight: Le Grand-Bornard > Alpe d'Huez (150km)
Dan Challis is a freelance journalist based in the Scottish Borders. As well as writing for Cycling Weekly and CyclingNews, Dan also writes a weekly newsletter called Global Peloton.
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