Kasia Niewiadoma wins the Tour de France Femmes in a nail-biter
August 19, 2024 6:41 AM Subscribe
With the narrowest margin of victory ever in the Tour de France (men's or women's)—four seconds—Kasia Niewiadoma, who has finished in third twice before—edged out Demi Vollering for the win.
Vollering had been in the yellow jersey in Stage 5 when a crash cost her valuable time, and most of her team rode off without her, apparently due to broken team radios. In the final mountainous stage, Stage 8, finishing atop Alpe d'Huez, Vollering got ahead of Niewiadoma, but Niewiadoma managed to keep that gap barely below the margin of victory. The end result was so close that the winner was not known for a few minutes after the lead racers had crossed the finish line.
Marianne Vos, straight from her second-place finish in the Olympics road race, won the sprinter's green jersey. Justine Ghekiere, who was only chosen to ride the TdFF a few days in advance, finished in the mountain climber's polka-dot jersey, and Puck Peterse finished in the white young rider's jersey.
Photos from the race
The women's Tour de France has existed in some form, off and on, since 1955, but this is only the third edition of the current iteration, technically called Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. This is a considerably shorter race than the men's TdF, which is 21 stages.
Vollering had been in the yellow jersey in Stage 5 when a crash cost her valuable time, and most of her team rode off without her, apparently due to broken team radios. In the final mountainous stage, Stage 8, finishing atop Alpe d'Huez, Vollering got ahead of Niewiadoma, but Niewiadoma managed to keep that gap barely below the margin of victory. The end result was so close that the winner was not known for a few minutes after the lead racers had crossed the finish line.
Marianne Vos, straight from her second-place finish in the Olympics road race, won the sprinter's green jersey. Justine Ghekiere, who was only chosen to ride the TdFF a few days in advance, finished in the mountain climber's polka-dot jersey, and Puck Peterse finished in the white young rider's jersey.
Photos from the race
The women's Tour de France has existed in some form, off and on, since 1955, but this is only the third edition of the current iteration, technically called Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. This is a considerably shorter race than the men's TdF, which is 21 stages.
Yes, that last stage was really fun to watch. Winning a tour by 4 seconds; I wonder if (and hope that) this will become the new benchmark when we talk about how much seconds can matter, replacing the 1989 LeMond-Fignon eight-second margin as the go-to.
Vollering seemed like she was fuming at the stage 5 finish line, in the footage I saw of her on the cooldown bike, but that could be me reading too much into her expression. The failure of SD Worx's radios is unfortunate, but the fact that the yellow jersey was riding without teammate support at all is almost unbelievable. A crash of the team leader is normally not something that would go unnoticed by at least a few other members of that team, with or without radios.
I found it interesting that about 5.5 of the 8 stages took place outside of France, but since this was the first time the women's tour had any stages outside of France perhaps they wanted to make up for previous years. Finishing on Alpe d'Huez was perfect though. Much better than this year's men's tour ending on a time trial.
Feels like women's pro cycling has really been gathering steam in terms of fan interest in the last couple of years. Hope it continues, and perhaps we might see a 21-stage tour in the near future.
posted by good in a vacuum at 7:39 AM on August 19 [2 favorites]
Vollering seemed like she was fuming at the stage 5 finish line, in the footage I saw of her on the cooldown bike, but that could be me reading too much into her expression. The failure of SD Worx's radios is unfortunate, but the fact that the yellow jersey was riding without teammate support at all is almost unbelievable. A crash of the team leader is normally not something that would go unnoticed by at least a few other members of that team, with or without radios.
I found it interesting that about 5.5 of the 8 stages took place outside of France, but since this was the first time the women's tour had any stages outside of France perhaps they wanted to make up for previous years. Finishing on Alpe d'Huez was perfect though. Much better than this year's men's tour ending on a time trial.
Feels like women's pro cycling has really been gathering steam in terms of fan interest in the last couple of years. Hope it continues, and perhaps we might see a 21-stage tour in the near future.
posted by good in a vacuum at 7:39 AM on August 19 [2 favorites]
I'm sure I heard or read that the organizers were assuming a bit of biking fatigue from fans after the men's TdF and then the Olympics, thus the days in the low countries. Turns out the crowds were great everywhere.
I'm not a fan of team SDWorks, but I do like Demi and feel for her after what occurred after the crash. Seems there's no love lost after all regarding Vollering's departure, especially from Lorena Wiebes, who pushed on to sprint for 8th instead of helping the rider who rode for her many times this season. I'll be happy to root for FDJ next season with her on the roster.
posted by OHenryPacey at 7:58 AM on August 19 [1 favorite]
I'm not a fan of team SDWorks, but I do like Demi and feel for her after what occurred after the crash. Seems there's no love lost after all regarding Vollering's departure, especially from Lorena Wiebes, who pushed on to sprint for 8th instead of helping the rider who rode for her many times this season. I'll be happy to root for FDJ next season with her on the roster.
posted by OHenryPacey at 7:58 AM on August 19 [1 favorite]
Here's a fast-paced analysis of the 8th stage by Lanterne Rouge.
posted by adamrice at 8:07 AM on August 19
posted by adamrice at 8:07 AM on August 19
Digital trunked radio system?
Failure of radios, plural?
Was it a failure of a system, rather than a failure of a radio?
posted by the Real Dan at 10:24 AM on August 19
Failure of radios, plural?
Was it a failure of a system, rather than a failure of a radio?
posted by the Real Dan at 10:24 AM on August 19
We were camped out on the mountain at km 4 and the atmosphere was amazing. As Kasia rode by I timed her at just under one min down on Vollering, so she was inching back to the overall at that point. Truly an exciting finish to an amazing race and an absolute once-in-a-lifetime chance to see professional racing at that level in a pretty chill way. It feels like seeing the Stones in a little club or something. Women's racing is growing exponentially and taking the space it always should have had.
Rather than hoof it up to the prize ceremony we stayed and cheered on the remainders. Alison Jackson (winner of Paris Roubaix last year) was near the back but got incredible crowd support. My daughter was all abuzz with excitement and is going home with an Alpe d'Huez jersey and a pile of caravan schwag (I may have to borrow a Vache qui Rit cap). We did catch Kasia going in to the press corps afterwards, and hung out with Erik Zabel eating pizza at the Canyon-SRAM bus.
Watch the Femmes!
posted by St. Oops at 11:51 AM on August 19 [8 favorites]
Rather than hoof it up to the prize ceremony we stayed and cheered on the remainders. Alison Jackson (winner of Paris Roubaix last year) was near the back but got incredible crowd support. My daughter was all abuzz with excitement and is going home with an Alpe d'Huez jersey and a pile of caravan schwag (I may have to borrow a Vache qui Rit cap). We did catch Kasia going in to the press corps afterwards, and hung out with Erik Zabel eating pizza at the Canyon-SRAM bus.
Watch the Femmes!
posted by St. Oops at 11:51 AM on August 19 [8 favorites]
Niewiadoma is an exciting rider who has come very close to victory multiple times, so I'm thrilled she won buuuuuut....
Vollering was robbed. Not by Niewiadoma, but by her own team. She was crashed out of stage 5 BY HER OWN TEAMMATE, who later said that yeah, she had 'seen something yellow on the ground'. It is absolutely incomprehensible that no-one in the team realised that Vollering had gone down at that roundabout. You don't need a radio to tell you that your leader is missing, particularly when you're the one who brought her down.
SD Worx could have had a victory in the TDFF, but instead they threw it away through incompetence and pettiness. There will be sponsors asking some very pointed questions of the director sportif and team management, and rightly so.
posted by tim_in_oz at 7:33 PM on August 19 [5 favorites]
Vollering was robbed. Not by Niewiadoma, but by her own team. She was crashed out of stage 5 BY HER OWN TEAMMATE, who later said that yeah, she had 'seen something yellow on the ground'. It is absolutely incomprehensible that no-one in the team realised that Vollering had gone down at that roundabout. You don't need a radio to tell you that your leader is missing, particularly when you're the one who brought her down.
SD Worx could have had a victory in the TDFF, but instead they threw it away through incompetence and pettiness. There will be sponsors asking some very pointed questions of the director sportif and team management, and rightly so.
posted by tim_in_oz at 7:33 PM on August 19 [5 favorites]
Niewiadoma is a phenomenon on the cusp of great things for a while, so I'm glad to see her winning. I don't know what caused SD Worx to fail to protect their rider and I'm unsure if I buy into the "protect the yellow jersey" as sporting behaviour within the Tour de France and bike racing as a whole.
I believe the legacy of men riding the Tour de France would have any other team realise, communicate among the riders and neutralise the race -- something like a "do unto others" approach for the possible day you need to win by racing, not falling or having a mechanical. I don't know how that didn't happen here, same problem as a couple of years ago where a loo break was not voluntarily neutralized but instead seized to get time up the road.
posted by k3ninho at 7:16 AM on August 22 [1 favorite]
I believe the legacy of men riding the Tour de France would have any other team realise, communicate among the riders and neutralise the race -- something like a "do unto others" approach for the possible day you need to win by racing, not falling or having a mechanical. I don't know how that didn't happen here, same problem as a couple of years ago where a loo break was not voluntarily neutralized but instead seized to get time up the road.
posted by k3ninho at 7:16 AM on August 22 [1 favorite]
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posted by OHenryPacey at 7:09 AM on August 19