By CNN
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Katarzyna ‘Kasia’ Niewiadoma won a thrilling edition of the Tour de France Femmes by just four seconds, holding off a blistering long-range attack on the final stage from defending champion Demi Vollering as the race was decided on the iconic Alpe d’Huez.
Niewiadoma began the day in the yellow jersey with a 1:13 buffer over Pauliena Rooijakkers, a renowned climber but more untested as a general classification racer, and 1:15 over Vollering, who has been one of the most dominant riders in recent years.
Vollering had attacked more than 40 kilometers (roughly 24.9 miles) from the finish on the steepest slopes of the Col du Glandon and, at one point, held a gap of 1:27 over Niewiadoma and the virtual race lead. The Dutchwoman won the stage, taking a 10 second time bonus with the victory, but Niewiadoma emptied herself on the upper slopes of the climb, sprinting home with just four seconds to spare.
Once the magnitude of her achievement set in, the Pole collapsed with her head in her hands and began crying with joy and exhaustion, emerging only to lift her bike into the sky. Meters away, Vollering slumped on the tarmac, similarly overcome with exhaustion and emotion but without the joy to temper it.
“It’s so crazy to be honest,” Niewiadoma told Eurosport afterwards. “The whole stage was such a crazy rollercoaster, like I had a really bad moment on Glandon. Then on the descent I was able to rebuild myself.
“Then on Alpe d’Huez, I just had to pace myself, give my best in the last five km. And to be honest, for a second, I lost faith that I could still do it. They were screaming so much down the radio in the last two km.”
Winning the Tour de France Femmes marks by far the biggest win of Niewiadoma’s career, and her first major stage race win for seven years. She first took the yellow jersey on stage 5 when previous race leader Vollering crashed six kilometers from the line.
A thrilling finish
Only Rooijakkers could match Vollering’s initial acceleration on Sunday, and she remained glued to her compatriot’s wheel except when she was dropped briefly on the descent, giving Vollering the virtual race lead.
With the race poised so evenly between the three riders, a thrilling chase ensued as Niewiadoma pursued Vollering and Rooijakkers up the mountain, with the seconds ticking back and forth, the sport’s biggest prize slipping through one rider’s grasp and then the other.
Niewiadoma’s group made inroads into the time gap on the flat between the two mountain passes, reducing it to about 40 seconds as the lead group hit the famous slopes of Alpe d’Huez.
But the leading duo displayed their strength on the climb, pushing the gap out to over a minute and it seemed increasingly likely that one of them would take the yellow jersey. As the kilometers ticked past, however, and the riders became more and more fatigued, Niewiadoma found an extra kick and began closing the time gap.
Vollering sprinted for the line, dropping Rooijakkers and taking the stage victory but just missing out on defending her overall title. She finished second in the general classification while Rooijakkers rounded out the podium in third.
