The conclusion of the Women's Tour de France takes an exciting turn.
What an exciting conclusion: Toward the end of the women's Tour de France, Katarzyna Niewiadoma preserves a close 4-second advantage at the finish line.
Katarzyna Niewiadoma closed out the sensational conclusion for the overall triumph and clinched her first Tour de France Femmes title. The 29-year-old from Team Canyon/SRAM Racing completed the thrilling eight-day race's final stage climbing up Alpe d'Huez with a 4-second cushion over last year's Dutch champion Demi Vollering.
Niewiadoma managed to recover after Vollering (SD Worx-Protime) launched a surprise attack. Already having gone ahead at the penultimate climb, the Col du Glandon, Niewiadoma initially struggled to keep pace with Vollering. The defending champion had extended her gap over Niewiadoma to over 1 minute and 30 seconds, which would have snatched the yellow jersey from her rival.
However, Niewiadoma cleverly chased down her adversary on the 21 grueling hairpin turns in the renowned Alpe d'Huez winter sports resort. Though Vollering triumphed on the stage with a 4-second lead over her Dutch compatriot Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix-Deceuninck), her 1:01-minute advantage and time bonus failed to dethrone Niewiadoma as the overall champion. "It's unbelievable," Niewiadoma remarked in her post-race interview: "The entire race was like a wild rollercoaster. I had a rough patch, but I somehow managed to pull through."
The Germans contributed nothing to the overall classification. Hannah Ludwig from Heidelberg (Cofidis) represented the best German rider, finishing 21st with a deficit of over 20 minutes. For Niewiadoma, this is her most significant accomplishment to date. The climbing prodigy secured the yellow jersey after the fifth stage when Vollering, as the overall leader, crashed and saw a significant loss in time. After placing third consecutively in the Tour, she finally bagged the overall victory.
In her post-race interview, Katarzyna Niewiadoma expressed her joy, stating, "It's incredible to win the Tour de France Femmes in France, a country known for its passion for cycling." Despite facing challenges during the race, Franz Deckler, a German sports analyst, noted, "Despite their efforts, no German rider could challenge Niewiadoma's dominance in France."
