{"id":581003,"date":"2026-08-11T03:24:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T03:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/581003\/"},"modified":"2026-08-11T03:24:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T03:24:10","slug":"tour-de-france-femmes-steps-out-of-pogacars-shadow-to-showcase-truly-compelling-racing-tour-de-france-femmes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/581003\/","title":{"rendered":"Tour de France Femmes steps out of Pogacar\u2019s shadow to showcase truly compelling racing | Tour de France Femmes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Demi Vollering\u2019s second overall win in the Tour de France Femmes<\/a> in Nice on Sunday was achieved after a heated dispute with Kasia Niewiadoma, but by the time the sun was setting on the Promenade des Anglais, the sisterhood that has always characterised this race had kicked back in.<\/p>\n

On a final stage of high drama, the Dutchwoman erased the lingering controversy with an attacking win of the highest quality, further boosting the prestige of the long-dormant native cycling scene in a gutsy performance from her French\u2011sponsored FDJ United-Suez team.<\/p>\n

Niewiadoma\u2019s uncharacteristic outburst on the finish line<\/a> at Vollering\u2019s teammate C\u00e9lia Gery on Saturday fuelled the controversy that dominated the final stage, but did not diminish the scale of her achievement.<\/p>\n

The former florist has had a golden 2026, winning the Giro d\u2019Italia Women<\/a>, in addition to Li\u00e8ge\u2011Bastogne\u2011Li\u00e8ge, the Tour of Flanders and Fl\u00e8che Wallonne. Her achievements this season compare with, and arguably outstrip, those of her men\u2019s Tour de France\u2011winning counterpart<\/a>, Tadej Pogacar.<\/p>\n

Vollering has long been outspoken about the wellbeing of young people and reacted angrily to Niewiadoma\u2019s public criticism of Gery, her 20-year-old teammate. \u201cShe got a lot of nasty messages,\u201d Vollering said on Sunday. \u201cIt makes me very angry, especially because she\u2019s such a young girl. We should always protect young people from these kinds of stupid actions. She had a really rough time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vollering and Niewiadoma had a clear-the-air conversation on their bikes during the early kilometres of the final stage on Sunday. \u201cI wanted to have a chat with Kasia because I was a bit disappointed she let all the emotions out like that,\u201d she said. \u201cIt was good that we had a talk together. It was all good in the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Polish rider, who won the spectacular stage on Mont Ventoux<\/a> on Friday and finished in the Tour\u2019s top three for the fifth time, was equally conciliatory. \u201cWe\u2019ve been competing together for years. None of us ever wants to have any sort of beef.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a different story for the unfortunate Marlen Reusser, another key protagonist in the nine-day drama<\/a>. The Swiss rider, who began the final stage in third place, crashed at speed on the second descent of Col d\u2019\u00c8ze. She remounted, in tears, all hopes of the podium lost, but finished the stage.<\/p>\n

The men\u2019s Tour de France was effectively over as a contest as soon as stage six, when Pogacar won over the Col du Tourmalet<\/a>, but there was uncertainty about the outcome of the women\u2019s race until the final narrow climb of the Chemin de Vinaigrier, a little-known lane in suburban Nice. Pogacar will go to Edinburgh for the Grand D\u00e9part<\/a> on 2 July next year seeking a sixth win, but it is uncertain if Jonas Vingegaard will remain his greatest rival. While Pogacar has confirmed he will race in the Vuelta a Espa\u00f1a<\/a>, starting in Monaco on 22 August, Vingegaard\u2019s future remains unclear.<\/p>\n

Mattias Skjelmose, a fellow Dane, has revealed Vingegaard, who crashed out of the Tour with a broken collarbone<\/a>, has become disheartened by Pogacar\u2019s domination. \u201cJonas says: \u2018I can\u2019t do any more. What am I supposed to do? I produce the best I\u2019ve ever done and he just rides away from me,\u2019\u201d Skjelmose told a Danish podcast<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Vingegaard\u2019s crash came hours after he was subjected to a 2am visit by drug testers from the International Testing Agency. The debate over the appropriateness of such extreme anti-doping measures \u2013 and the consequences for the riders \u2013 dominated the rest of the Tour. Pogacar rode on to Paris, apparently untroubled by his own 5am wake-up call, but the UCI\u2019s president, David Lappartient, said: \u201cThere will always be suspicion in cycling<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

The men\u2019s Tour throws up the biggest stars and biggest controversies, but in the era of Pogacar it is the Tour de France Femmes<\/a> that offers the most compelling racing. \u201cWhen you have a Tadej Pogacar, at such a high level, you\u2019re talking more about second place,\u201d the Tour de France Femmes director, Marion Rousse, said. \u201cIt\u2019s not like that in the women\u2019s race. Women\u2019s cycling at the moment creates more suspense than you see in men\u2019s cycling, because Pogacar is so dominant.\u201d<\/p>\n

skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter | Fortnightly<\/p>\n

Sign up to The Hotspot<\/p>\n

A new fortnightly newsletter covering the intersection of sport and the climate crisis<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The refreshing nature of the Tour de France<\/a> Femmes remains intact even as it grows at a rapid pace. Pogacar, a constant advocate of the women\u2019s peloton, seems enthralled. He was spotted at the roadside, in beanie hat and shades, during the stage to Mont Ventoux on Friday, running alongside and cheering on his partner, Urska Zigart, and was present again at the weekend in Nice.<\/p>\n

Rousse believes the women\u2019s race, which will hold its Grand D\u00e9part in Leeds on 30 July next year before stage finishes in Manchester, Sheffield and London, has not lost its innocence. \u201cThere\u2019s a freshness, which you don\u2019t get in men\u2019s racing because the men are more used to it,\u201d she said. \u201cWomen\u2019s sport is more accessible. I think it\u2019s because before, during the years before women\u2019s cycling had profile, there was little \u2018mediatisation\u2019 of women\u2019s racing. Now they see the media coverage, they see so many people come to watch and it\u2019s powerful for them. They\u2019re moved and every time, up on the podium, there\u2019s lots of emotion. That\u2019s a new experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rousse said the sceptics who doubted the quality of the women\u2019s peloton have been silenced. \u201cBack then it was all: \u2018Are the women good enough? Can they do the big climbs?\u2019 Now it\u2019s: \u2018Why don\u2019t you have more stages? Why isn\u2019t it every stage shown live on TV?\u2019 Nobody asks if the women are good enough any more. They have proved themselves, they\u2019re champions who have shown on the road and on their bikes that they deserve their place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kasia Niewiadoma accepts the prix de la combativit\u00e9 (most attacking rider) for stage nine after finishing second to Demi Vollering overall. Photograph: Silvina Brodersohn\/CameraSport\/Getty<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Demi Vollering\u2019s second overall win in the Tour de France Femmes in Nice on Sunday was achieved after…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581004,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-581003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581003","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581003\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581004"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}