'Vollering was the strongest' - No complaints for Niewiadoma after Tour Femmes defeat

On the shallower portion that led to the summit, Vollering responded with an acceleration of her own and Niewiadoma finally had to yield. Vollering to stage victory over the other side in Nice, while Niewiadoma had to settle for third on the stage and second place overall, 1:18 down on the Dutchwoman.

“She was really, really strong. Chapeau, you know, the strongest won,” Niewiadoma told Sporza afterwards. “I gave my best. The steeper parts always benefit me slightly more, but once we got to the main road, it was quite fast and Demi is a very powerful rider. Chapeau, seriously.”

After soloing to victory atop Mont Ventoux on Friday, Niewiadoma lost the yellow jersey to Vollering in contentious circumstances on stage 8, with the Pole complaining that she was impeded by FDJ United-Suez’s Célia Gery ahead of Vollering’s decisive attack. 

When the dust settled, however, Niewiadoma was still only eight seconds off yellow ahead of the final stage, which took in four ascents of the Col d’Èze. She set her Canyon-SRAM team to ride aggressively in a bid to isolate Vollering and prepare the ground for her own attack on the final climb.

Zoe Bäckstedt was the MVP of the Canyon-SRAM effort, recovering from an early crash to shred the front group to just a dozen riders on the second ascent of the Col d’Èze. 

“Honestly, I don’t know if Zoe knows, but she’s officially a climber,” Niewiadoma told Eurosport. “She definitely put me in trouble and the whole peloton. It was something incredible. It’s just so nice to see when the team believes in going for it. It’s beautiful to be part of such a crazy team.”

Niewiadoma went on the offensive with 4km to go on the final ascent of the Col d’Èze, and only Vollering could track her acceleration. She was unable to break her rival, however, and she was distanced by Vollering’s surge 500m from the top.

After the descent, Niewiadoma dropped back into a chasing group, and she was outsprinted to second place on the stage by Paul Blasi (UAE L’IMAD).

“Having a competitor like Demi just motivates me to get stronger,” Niewiadoma said. “I know the Tour is finished, but I feel like I just want to message my coach already and be like, ‘OK, this and this and this and this, we need to change or work on.’”

Like Vollering, Niewiadoma has the distinction of finishing on the podium in each of the five editions of the current iteration of the Tour Femmes, which began in 2022. She won the race by four seconds from Vollering in 2024, but she declared herself satisfied with her showing across this week, including her remarkable winning effort atop Mont Ventoux.

“I mean, I gave my all, basically, and I have a win on Ventoux too, so when I put the whole week into perspective, I’m super pleased,” Niewiadoma said. 

“There’s nothing I could have done differently because I gave everything and I tried today on the climb. That was the plan, but Demi was right there, so yeah, she showed she was the strongest.”