'I was waiting for the sprinters' - Niewiadoma annoyed after stage 1 error
Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney finished fourth on stage 1 of the Tour de France Femmes but admitted a small mistake on the climb to the finish in Plumelec may have cost her a better result
Defending champion Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon//SRAM-zondacrypto) finished fourth on the opening stage of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift on Saturday, but was dissatisfied by her performance.
The uphill finish of the race’s opening day was always going to present riders and teams with problems, but the Polish road champion seemed to have dealt with it well, finishing ahead of many of her GC rivals. However, finishing fourth means she has ceded four bonus seconds to Pauline Ferrand-Prevot (Visma | Lease a Bike). Exactly the margin by which she won the Tour overall last year.
In what became a frantic final, Ferrand-Prevot was working for her team mate, and eventual stage winner, Marianne Vos, but found herself off the front of fast shrinking peloton as the road rose steeply towards the line. With Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) unable to close the gap, the chase stalled and the French woman almost won the stage.
Niewiadoma-Phinney was on the coattails of Vos as she followed the chasing Kim Le Court (AG Insurance-Soudal) was was unable to get past either.
“It was super weird because everyone was waiting for one team to take lead but no one was really in charge,” Niewiadoma-Phinney said. “Pauline was in the front and she accelerated and then the gap opened up because Mariane was on her wheel, so she stopped and then Van der Breggen tried to close it and then she pulled off.
“A of a sudden I was like ‘oh shit, nobody wants to do it’ so it was too late to react. I was waiting for sprinters to start sprinting but it ever happened.”
When Niewiadoma-Phinney won last year’s Tour she did so without a top 10 finish in the opening three stages, but this year’s race has tripwires set for the GC riders on almost every stage, something she clearly recognised. She will also be all too aware the tiny deficit she has to Ferrand-Prevot was her 2024 winning margin.
“I’m annoyed in some ways how it ended up, I guess it was the first stage and we will see how everyone feels, but I feel like if we had a different approach we could have maybe got a better result.”
Closer examination of the results should give Niewiadoma-Phinney solace as a gap had opened behind her and she took three se cones out of last year’s second placed Demi Vollering (FDJ-SUEZ), while Van der Breggen, Puck Pieterse, Pauiliena Roijakkers (both Fenix-Deceuninck) and the other favourites are even further back.
Perhaps the worst affected were Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) and Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance-Soudal) who finished first and third at the recent Giro d’Italia Women and are 1:02 and 31 seconds back, respectively.
