Seconds chase to Alpe d'Huez
Women's Tour de France ends dramatically
What a dramatic finale: At the end of the women's Tour de France, winner Katarzyna Niewiadoma saved a four-second lead to the finish. The way up to Alpe d'Huez becomes a roller coaster ride for the top riders.
The Polish Katarzyna Niewiadoma won the second thriller for the overall victory and won the Tour de France Femmes for the first time. After the spectacular final stage of the eight-day tour up to Alpe d'Huez, the 29-year-old from the German racing team Canyon/SRAM Racing was only four seconds ahead of last year's Dutch winner Demi Vollering in the overall ranking.
Niewiadoma fought back extremely impressively after an attack from Vollering (SD Worx-Protime). The defending champion had already attacked on the penultimate climb on the Col du Glandon and Niewiadoma was initially unable to follow her. In the meantime, Vollering extended her lead over Niewiadoma to over a minute and a half, which would have seen her take the yellow jersey from her competitor.
On the 21 bends in the legendary winter sports resort of Alpe d'Huez, Niewiadoma caught up second by second. Although Vollering secured the day's victory four seconds ahead of compatriot Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix-Deceuninck), the 1:01 minute lead and the time bonus were not enough to snatch the overall victory from Niewiadoma. “It's crazy. The whole stage was a crazy roller coaster ride,” said Niewiadoma in the winner's interview: “I had a bad moment. But I was able to fight back.”
The Germans had nothing to do with the outcome in the overall ranking. Hannah Ludwig from Heidelberg (Cofidis) ended up in 21st place as the best German driver, more than 20 minutes behind. For Niewiadoma it is the greatest success of his career. The climbing specialist took over the yellow jersey after the fifth stage when Vollering, the overall leader, fell and lost a lot of time in addition to the yellow jersey. After two third places in a row on the tour, she now took overall victory.
