“It’s not like I lost to a rookie, you know?” is probably the line from Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney that best sums up her reaction to missing out on the overall victory at the Tour de France Femmes.
The 2024 winner went toe-to-toe with the pre-race favourite Demi Vollering (FDJ United-Suez), bettering her on the legendary climb of Mont Ventoux to briefly take yellow, and only losing on the punchy final weekend where FDJ threw absolutely everything at her.
So it was ‘just’ a podium finish this time for Niewiadoma-Phinney – her fifth in as many editions of the race, which both her and Vollering have done – but that didn’t automatically equal disappointment.
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“I’m happy and satisfied just because I know that I gave my absolute best,” she said in her runner-up press conference.
“We came here to fight for the best possible result, and I mean, I won on Mont Ventoux, and I feel like that was the biggest day of my life, cycling-wise. I’m super proud and happy about it. And then Demi is of course extremely strong, and it’s not that I lost to a rookie, you know? It makes me work harder and then dream to come back here and get the yellow jersey again. So, in general, I would say I’m happy.”
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It was a similar feeling at the Canyon-SRAM bus, where celebrations were obviously not as raucous as they were a few metres down the road at FDJ, but the team were keen to emphasise that this was a result they were very pleased with.
“We acknowledge performance and congrats to Demi and to her team. She has been the strongest with a good support group of her team, and we accept that we are second now in GC. We are proud of that achievement,” a cheery Ronny Lauke, Canyon-SRAM team manager, said.
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“We fought until the very end, and this is a realistic result now with everything we have seen. It was a fair competition today, and we are happy with Antonia in fourth place with the white jersey, the best young rider, so we are also ready for the future. Everything is good from our side.”
It’s perhaps surprising for the rider and team to be this happy about coming second in a race they’ve won before and podiumed the other three times – though interestingly, never in second – so why was that the overwhelming feeling on Sunday evening?
Apart from taking a huge win on Ventoux, there is also the fact that this race gets harder every year, both in competition and parcours, as the level of the peloton in general rises rapidly. To be able to keep improving along with that offers a sense of pride and accomplishment for Niewiadoma-Phinney.
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“Each year has been special in its own way. I think that this year definitely felt nice. I think that I felt stronger than in any other editions. I felt like I was part of making the race maybe more interesting,” she said.
“So definitely the way I approached the race with my coach and what we were preparing for paid off, and that just gives me confidence for the future. I feel like there are a lot of women right now at a similar level, and then it’s all about those little gains you can make or maybe mental strength and mental approach that gets you into yellow.”
Niewiadoma-Phinney was vague on what the specifics of those little gains or performance tweaks might be, but spoke more openly about the mental side, and how her enjoyment of the sport makes it much easier to live the life of an elite athlete.
“I find myself being very fortunate because I purely love riding my bike. I feel very passionate about it, and I share the passion with my husband, so any day for us on a bike is a fun, happy day. And as long as you love doing what you do, then it never feels like any sort of sacrifice or anything like that,” she said.
“And whenever I go to races, and I get my ass kicked, that also gives me motivation to then come back and be the one that kicks others’ asses.”
‘Every single year she delivers’
Canyon-SRAM were aggressive on the final stage, sending British champion Backstedt to the front to greatly reduce the bunch (Image credit: Getty Images)
The significance of Niewiadoma-Phinney finishing on the podium five times for Canyon-SRAM, matching Vollering in that record to underline just how close she is to the peloton’s best rider, is really not lost on the team, either.
“I’m also proud that we are now the team that is for the fifth consecutive year on the GC podium, and the only one, the only team,” Lauke said.
“This is exceptionally good. Kasia, from the beginning, when we knew that the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift was coming for our part of the sport, we knew that this was going to be our season highlight and we wanted to perform. Kasia has adjusted her training, her preparation, her focus, and every single year she delivers. She’s always trying to become better, and she’s an exceptionally classy rider. In her shadow another rider has grown, Antonia [Niedermaier] and this is fantastic for us.”
It’s this ability to focus on the Tour de France, perhaps at the expense of being a more prolific winner, that is likely behind Niewiadoma-Phinney’s repeated success here. Rather than struggle with the pressure of one singular big goal, that laser focus seems to only spur her and the team on, and means that every year, she comes to this race at her very best level, a streak of consistency very few are able to replicate.
“The importance of this race, you need to understand how much it does for the sport and how important it is. So I think that’s where we always come together, to say, ‘Well, it’s not just a race. It’s not just another Grand Tour or something; it’s the Tour de France’,” Canyon-SRAM DS Rolf Aldag said.
“If you put that importance into it, then you also understand you need to put more and more resources into it year by year – more altitude, more people, more planning, and stuff like that. I think the team always did that really, really well. But also, to be fair, Kasia always did that on her own. So we gave her a lot of peace and freedom to prepare. We didn’t make everything mandatory from the team. We know how motivated she is, and that’s the key to it. You need to love this race, and you need to understand how important it is, and that makes it definitely easier.”
This may be another second place in Niewiadoma-Phinney’s palmares, but it won’t be remembered as that. It will be remembered the same as the year she won: a great battle, a duel between two of the peloton’s best, and a mighty final day to decide the GC. The result may not have been the same, but the racing, determination, and indeed strength was perhaps even better.
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