{"id":851021,"date":"2026-08-08T20:44:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T20:44:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/851021\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T20:44:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T20:44:15","slug":"tour-de-france-femmes-vollerings-late-escape-for-yellow-leaves-niewiadoma-fuming-tour-de-france-femmes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/851021\/","title":{"rendered":"Tour de France Femmes: Vollering\u2019s late escape for yellow leaves Niewiadoma fuming | Tour de France Femmes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Demi Vollering took the overall lead from Kasia Niewiadoma in the Tour de France Femmes<\/a> with a vicious attack in the hills behind Nice to lead the race by eight seconds from the 2024 winner, with just one stage remaining.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very special to be back in yellow,\u201d Vollering, leader of French team FDJ United-Suez said. \u201cTomorrow I start in yellow and I will do everything in my power to keep it. So much can happen \u2013 it\u2019s still a big fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was Vollering\u2019s fifth stage victory in the Tour Femmes and also her fifth yellow jersey and came after she had regretted failing to mount a meaningful pursuit of Niewiadoma on Friday\u2019s summit finish to Mont Ventoux.<\/p>\n

Vollering took the initiative on the final climb of the Cote de la Ginesti\u00e8re and after a breakneck descent, extended her lead on the long straight road to the finish on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice.<\/p>\n

But Niewiadoma was critical of the tactics of Vollering\u2019s team. \u201cI was annoyed at the beginning of the climb because Gery, on purpose, just blocked me to the barriers where I had to stop pedalling,\u201d she said of C\u00e9lia Gery, Vollering\u2019s teammate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey should compete fair play and not look to block me on the barriers because it is so childish. I lost all the respect for them for that.\u201d Vollering responded by saying she had not seen the incident, which was studied at length by race commissaires after the stage. \u201cI didn\u2019t see anything, I just saw what was in front of me,\u201d she said. \u201cIt happened behind me. I don\u2019t have eyes in the back of my head. Celia probably didn\u2019t see Kasia and I\u2019m sure she didn\u2019t do it on purpose. I\u2019m sure Kasia knows deep in her heart that those kinds of things just happen sometimes in racing. It\u2019s the shit part of racing.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the critical attacks came in the suburbs of Nice, the stage was animated by a two-rider breakaway, featuring Breton rider Ma\u00ebva Squiban and Loes Adegeest, of the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

The duo might have hoped to remain clear to the finish, but Squiban, winner of two stages in last year\u2019s race, crashed on a left-hand bend on the descent of the C\u00f4te de Colomars and howling in pain, was swallowed up the peloton.<\/p>\n

That left her former companion riding alone at the front of the Tour, but her escape ended nine kilometres from the finish as Vollering\u2019s team attacked the bends leading to the Cote de la Ginesti\u00e8re.<\/p>\n

It was there that Vollering attacked, and while Niewiadoma stuck to the task, she lost ground in the final cruel metres of the short steep climb.<\/p>\n

Kasia Niewiadoma (second left) relinquished the yellow jersey in Nice. Photograph: Tim de Waele\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Now only eight seconds separate the pair. Every second will count in Sunday\u2019s final stage of the Tour, based around Nice, which takes in four climbs of the Col d\u2019Eze, overlooking the corniche roads of Villefranche-sur-Mer.<\/p>\n

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The rivalry between Vollering and Niewiadoma goes back to the 2024 Tour, when the Dutch rider lost to the Pole by just four seconds, the narrowest margin of defeat in the history of any Tour de France, after an epic duel to Alpe d\u2019Huez.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, French favourite Pauline Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot\u2019s title defence came to a predictable end. From her listless performance in the stage four time trial, to her major losses of time on Mont Brouilly and Mont Ventoux, her performance has been a stark contrast to that of a year ago.<\/p>\n

The Olympic gold medallist\u2019s exit from the race was sudden and dramatic. Her bike was prepared and readied outside the Visma Lease-a-bike team bus at the start of stage eight in Sisteron, when she was reported by French TV crews to have told team staff \u201cI can\u2019t do it, I can\u2019t do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

An announcement confirming her withdrawal was made on social media afterwards stating that Ferrand-Prevot \u201cwas not feeling well this morning\u201d and adding \u201cin consultation with medical staff, it has been decided that she will not start\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot\u2019s vulnerability was evident as early as stage three, something her trainer, Rutger Tijssen, acknowledged.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen she couldn\u2019t hold on in the fifth stage, the signals were clearer,\u201d he said. \u201cWe knew then that it wasn\u2019t realistic to talk about winning the Tour.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Demi Vollering took the overall lead from Kasia Niewiadoma in the Tour de France Femmes with a vicious…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":851022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":["post-851021","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851021","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=851021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/851021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/851022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=851021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=851021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=851021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}