To see her post-stage reaction, it would have been easy to think the beaming Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney had won stage five of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift.<\/p>\n
At the Canyon-SRAM team bus in Belleville-en-Beaujolais, there were hugs with teammates and high fives shared with staff.<\/p>\n
The only hint of her near miss third place was summed up by one word exclaimed as she got off the bike: \u201cAlmost!\u201d<\/p>\n
Niewiadoma\u2019s long-range sprint from 400 meters out nearly caught breakaway companions Marlen Reusser and Demi Vollering napping. She was only passed by for victory 25 meters from the line by the Dutchwoman in a thrilling finish.<\/p>\n
\n
ADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Dreaming of yellow<\/h2>\nKasia Niewiadoma won the Tour de France Femmes 2024 with a huge ride on Alpe d\u2019Huez (Photo: Gruber Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
The 2024 race winner radiated contentedness after her last-climb breakaway over Mont Brouilly with Marlen Reusser (Movistar) and Demi Vollering (FDJ United-Suez). The race\u2019s best rode to the front on a breathless stage.<\/p>\n
Niewiadoma-Phinney has moved up to third overall, 1:17 behind the Swiss race leader. It looks like a three-horse race for the Tour de France Femmes ahead of a likely showdown on Mont Ventoux Friday.<\/p>\n
The 31-year-old is hungry for another triumph in this race.<\/p>\n
\u201cI definitely dream of winning the jersey again. That\u2019s the main goal and whatever comes, as long as we do our best, we know that it\u2019s all good. We came here to fight, and we\u2019ve shown so far we\u2019re fighting. So hopefully we will celebrate big on Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n
No regrets after nearly surprising Vollering<\/h2>\nKasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (right) comes up 25 meters short as Vollering and Reusser sprint past her within pedal strokes of the finish line. (Photo by Tim de Waele\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\u201cI\u2019m definitely happy that I gave my best \u2013 everything I had. There are no regrets, nothing that I could have or should have done differently,\u201d the Canyon-SRAM captain told media at the finish.<\/p>\n
\n
ADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been losing sprints in my life so many times. So in the free time [I\u2019ve had], I was always working out all the different scenarios,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
Niewiadoma-Phinney knew from a prior recon in south-eastern France that she would need to go for it from the corner.<\/p>\n
It meant she \u201ccould try something different instead of waiting for the last 200 meters and getting outsprinted. Everyone knows Demi is one of the fastest in the world, so you have to look for your opportunities elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, she put her head down and believed in her chances: \u201cI was thinking I cannot look up, I need to keep my head down. Anytime I sprint with my husband [Taylor Phinney], he\u2019s like \u2018you gotta stay aero!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe if there was a little bit more luck involved, I would get it. But I\u2019m still happy with how the team rode, having Antonia in the breakaway and then with me in the final, it was both perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n
A barrage of attacks and steep hills<\/h2>\n
Stage five saw constant attacks on the rolling roads around the Beaujolais vineyards. With 2,900 meters of elevation on the menu, an electrifying\u00a0\u00e9tape\u00a0<\/em>was a feather in the cap of the race organisers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe whole day was up and down, plus crazy heat. It was definitely not an easy day in the office,\u201d Niewiadoma-Phinney said.<\/p>\n
\n
ADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
She admitted to being \u201ca little stressed\u201d when a 19-rider breakaway went away mid-stage, including her teammate Antonia Niedermaier.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut once FDJ started riding, I could just sit on and Antonia in the front could, so this is quite a perfect situation for us. Then on the second-last climb [the Col de Durbize], I knew it was going to be all-out.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd it was. It was not easy. But yeah \u2013 bike racing, right?\u201d<\/p>\n
While Niewiadoma-Phinney made the running up front on Mont Brouilly, trading blows with Vollering, Niedermaier hung tough in a group behind her leader. The German has moved up to fourth overall and into the white jersey of best young rider.<\/p>\n
\u201cDefinitely, we can play with that,\u201d she said, talking about tactics.<\/p>\n
Niewiadoma-Phinney: It\u2019s tough to defend Tour title<\/h2>\n
One star who lost out badly in the GC game of snakes and ladders was defending champion Pauline Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot.<\/p>\n
She slipped off the back after the attack with 31 kilometers to go on the penultimate climb. She admitted to having \u2018no excuses\u201d post-stage.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really hard to defend it [this race],\u201d Niewiadoma-Phinney said. \u201cWhether it comes from people expecting you to do the same and weird pressure, it\u2019s not an easy one to prepare for.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n
ADVERTISEMENT<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u201cSo yeah, I don\u2019t know what\u2019s going on with her or how her preparation went, but it\u2019s something that each year, you have to invest more and more in order to be able to fight for the podium.\u201d<\/p>\n
Over the next five days, that battle could go all the way to Nice, even if the feared and famed \u201cGiant of Provence\u201d will have a big say on stage 7.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know that maybe Mont Ventoux will create bigger gaps, but then these stages are so hard and anything can happen there. It\u2019s not that we just have a friendly stage in Paris,\u201d Niewiadoma-Phinney said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Z8C_3414-2-scaled.jpg”] Andy McGrath Updated August 5, 2026 01:09PM To see her post-stage reaction, it would have been easy to think the beaming Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney had won stage five of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift. At the Canyon-SRAM team bus in Belleville-en-Beaujolais, there were hugs with teammates and high fives shared with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[226,71],"class_list":["post-2079499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-crawlmanager","tag-velo-outsideonline-com"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2079499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2079499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2079499\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2079499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2079499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2079499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Kasia](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Z8B_6839-720x480.jpg?width=1920&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")
![\"Kasia](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2289210337-720x480.jpg?width=1920&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")