Demi Vollering claimed her second Tour de France Femmes overall victory on Sunday in Nice, winning the final stage after a heated dispute with Kasia Niewiadoma. The Dutchwoman's attacking performance erased lingering controversy and boosted the prestige of the French-sponsored FDJ United-Suez team.
Final stage drama
The final stage was marked by high drama, with Niewiadoma's uncharacteristic outburst at Vollering's teammate, Célia Gery, on Saturday fuelling controversy. Despite this, Niewiadoma's achievement was not diminished; she has had a golden 2026, winning the Giro d'Italia Women, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the Tour of Flanders, and Flèche Wallonne.
Vollering, long outspoken about the wellbeing of young people, reacted angrily to Niewiadoma's criticism of Gery, her 20-year-old teammate. "She got a lot of nasty messages," Vollering said. "It makes me very angry, especially because she's such a young girl. We should always protect young people from these kinds of stupid actions. She had a really rough time."
Clear-the-air conversation
Vollering and Niewiadoma had a clear-the-air conversation on their bikes during the early kilometres of Sunday's stage. "I wanted to have a chat with Kasia because I was a bit disappointed she let all the emotions out like that," she said. "It was good that we had a talk together. It was all good in the end."
The Polish rider, who won Friday's spectacular stage on Mont Ventoux and finished in the Tour's top three for the fifth time, was equally conciliatory. "We've been competing together for years. None of us ever wants to have any sort of beef."
Uncertainty until the final climb
Unlike the men's Tour, which was effectively over by stage six when Tadej Pogacar won over the Col du Tourmalet, the women's race was uncertain until the final narrow climb of the Chemin de Vinaigrier in suburban Nice. The unfortunate Marlen Reusser, who began the final stage in third place, crashed at speed on the second descent of Col d'Èze, remounting in tears with podium hopes lost but finishing the stage.
Pogacar's dominance and its impact
Pogacar will go to Edinburgh for next year's Grand Départ on 2 July 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 España, starting in Monaco on 22 August, Vingegaard's future remains unclear. Mattias Skjelmose, a fellow Dane, has revealed Vingegaard, who crashed out of the Tour with a broken collarbone, has become disheartened by Pogacar's domination. "Jonas says: 'I can't do any more. What am I supposed to do? I produce the best I've ever done and he just rides away from me,'" Skjelmose told a Danish podcast.
Vingegaard's crash came hours after he was subjected to a 2am visit by drug testers from the International Testing Agency (ITA). The debate over the appropriateness of such extreme anti-doping measures dominated the rest of the Tour. Pogacar rode on to Paris, apparently untroubled by his own 5am wake-up call, but the UCI's president, David Lappartient, said "there will always be suspicion in cycling".
Women's racing offers more suspense
In the era of Pogacar, the Tour de France Femmes offers the most compelling racing. "When you have a Tadej Pogacar, at such a high level, you're talking more about second place," said the Tour de France Femmes director, Marion Rousse. "It's not like that in the women's race. Women's cycling at the moment creates more suspense than you see in men's cycling, because Pogacar is so dominant."
The refreshing nature of the Tour de France Femmes remains intact even as it grows rapidly. Pogacar, a constant advocate of the women's peloton, was spotted at the roadside during Friday's stage to Mont Ventoux, running alongside and cheering on his partner, Urska Zigart, and was present again in Nice. Rousse believes the women's race, which will hold its Grand Départ in Leeds on 30 July next year before stage finishes in Manchester, Sheffield and London, has not lost its innocence. "There's a freshness, which you don't get in men's racing because the men are more used to it," she said.
"Women's sport is more accessible. I think it's because before, during the years before women's cycling had profile, there was little 'mediatisation' of women's racing. Now they see the media coverage, they see so many people come to watch, and it's powerful for them. They're moved and every time, up on the podium, there's lots of emotion. That's a new experience."
Rousse said the sceptics who doubted the quality of the women's peloton have been silenced. "Back then it was all 'Are the women good enough? Can they do the big climbs?' Now it's 'Why don't you have more stages? Why isn't it every stage shown live on TV?' Nobody asks if the women are good enough any more. They have proved themselves, they're champions who have shown on the road and on their bikes that they deserve their place."
