Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney was the one her closest Tour de France Femmes rivals should have been worried about.<\/p>\n
Marlen Reusser and Demi Vollering might pay the price for underestimating one of the generation\u2019s most consistent riders \u2013 so often a podium finisher, so rarely a winner, even with her name in the record books next to the 2024 edition of the race.<\/p>\n
The Polish climber showed all her strength, determination and experience on stage 7, finishing up Mont Ventoux.<\/p>\n
The Canyon-SRAM captain, who had talked about \u201cfinding opportunities\u201d pre-race in Lausanne, snatched another, coming away with the yellow jersey after a 9-kilometer raid.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew I had to go away before 6ks to go because then it was kind of not flat, but less steep,\u201d Niewiadoma-Phinney said afterwards.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I knew that if I had a gap there, then in the back they would gamble because we had a headwind. Nobody wants to ride in a headwind, so that worked out perfectly.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Niewiadoma? More like Niewia-dominator, with the best climb performance in race history.<\/p>\n
Ventoux victory is \u2018payback\u2019<\/h2>\n(Photo: Gruber Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Little wonder she was tearful on the podium. This is a lot bigger than even the Tour de France for a rider who often comes close but rarely tastes victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis win is like I\u2019ve paid back more of the second and third places I got in my life,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The Pole, who by her own admission has lost a lot of sprints in his career, remarkably had her first stage win of the 2020s.<\/p>\n
Mentally, she had the upper hand, noticing pressure between Vollering and race leader Reusser.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could already see a couple of days ago that they were playing games,\u201d the Pole said to Dutch outlet NOS<\/i>.<\/p>\n
A recon trip with a difference<\/h2>\n
Funnily enough, Niewiadoma-Phinney was literally doing just that on a June bike-packing trip with husband Taylor Phinney and friends.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just had such a beautiful fun ride. And we were dreaming alive, like we were doing a leadout into the final, we were just playing around,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
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\u201cSo I feel like that evoked so many good feelings in me and I just knew I wouldn\u2019t regret it.\u201d<\/p>\n
This all-out August effort required a lot more suffering.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is just like a blank moment in your brain. You are just so tired, you in so much pain that I was just occasionally praying [laughs]\u2026 Please God, make it happen, finally I need to pull it off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vollering sets up duel for the ages<\/h2>\n
She sure did.<\/p>\n
As Vollering and Reusser refused to fully commit to the chase, her gap ticked up. Riding through the masses, body rocking and teeth gritted, at one point, the lead verged on 1:45. The rider who started the day in third, over a minute down, looked like she might put the race out of reach on one climb.<\/p>\n
However, this Tour is far from over.<\/p>\n
A Vollering acceleration in the final 600 meters reduced the gap by 36 seconds and sets up a thrilling finale.<\/p>\n
Just fifteen seconds separate the two on GC.<\/p>\n
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Niewiadoma-Phinney is \u201cdefinitely\u201d expecting another duel with Vollering, who lost by just four seconds in 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cHonestly, I\u2019m super super happy that we have a strong team. We have Antonia [Niedermaier],\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat shows how wonderful, what an incredible and talented kind of rider she is,\u201d she said of the helper sat in fifth place wearing the white jersey of best young rider.<\/p>\n
Antonia Niedermaier returned the compliments. \u201cShe showed she can really win the Tour. Sure, it\u2019s a long way to go to Nice, but we all believe in her.\u201d<\/p>\n
It seemed like Reusser and Vollering fatally underestimated their long-time rival. \u201cThey\u2019re often looking at each other, sometimes they\u2019re not really paying attention to what Kasia is doing,\u201d the German said. \u201cBut I also think she is just really strong at the Tour this year. I don\u2019t know if they could have kept up with her.\u201d<\/p>\n
She has been telling her since the start that she looks the strongest.<\/p>\n
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During her attack, she said these powerful words into the race radio to motivate her leader: \u201cKasia, you\u2019re the strongest. I believe in you, you\u2019re the queen.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Z8D_5987.jpg”] Andy McGrath Updated August 7, 2026 04:07PM Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney was the one her closest Tour de France Femmes rivals should have been worried about. Marlen Reusser and Demi Vollering might pay the price for underestimating one of the generation\u2019s most consistent riders \u2013 so often a podium finisher, so rarely a winner, […]<\/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-2083120","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\/2083120","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=2083120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2083120\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2083120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2083120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2083120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Kasia](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Z8C_3728-720x900.jpg?width=1920&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")