{"id":2085456,"date":"2026-08-08T23:12:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T20:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2085456"},"modified":"2026-08-08T23:12:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T20:12:00","slug":"amid-controversy-and-accusation-get-set-for-a-scintillating-showdown-to-tour-de-france-femmes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=2085456","title":{"rendered":"Amid Controversy and Accusation, Get Set for a Scintillating Showdown to Tour de France Femmes"},"content":{"rendered":"
Published August 8, 2026 05:12PM<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
With just eight seconds between the two top contenders, former GC winners Demi Vollering and Kasia Niewiadoma, Sunday\u2019s finale of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift was already set to be a high-stakes showdown.<\/p>\n
However the tension was drastically ratcheted upwards after stage 8 when Niewiadoma accused Vollering\u2019s teammate Celia G\u00e9ry of deliberately impeding her at a key moment, describing the action as \u201cchildish\u201d and saying she has lost all respect for the FDJ United \u2013 Suez squad.<\/p>\n
Vollering shrugged off the complaint, although her response that that \u2018kind of thing sometimes happens in racing\u2019 will do little to quell the tension.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s clear is that an already fragile situation has become even more so with one day to go. Niewiadoma is normally someone who is noticeably more upbeat than Vollering in interviews, whatever the outcome.<\/p>\n
Seeing her lash out on Saturday was a big change, and a reflection of just how frustrated she felt to lose yellow, particularly in light of perceived unacceptable action on G\u00e9ry\u2019s part.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWas it part of the plan?\u201d she demanded of the French champion when she confronted her at the finish.<\/p>\n
The race jury looked at the footage but no sanction was applied to G\u00e9ry.<\/p>\n
If anything is going to spur Ventoux stage winner Niewiadoma on even more, it\u2019s this kind of situation.<\/p>\n
\u2018It\u2019s not over yet\u2019<\/h2>\n
Stage 9 of the Tour de France Femmes may lack the high altitude of Friday\u2019s stage to Mont Ventoux, where Niewiadoma attacked early on the climb and finished 1:16 in front of Vollering. However it\u2019s plenty difficult, with four ascents of the Col d\u2019Eze packed into just 99.2km.<\/p>\n
The climbing begins immediately after the start and from there the stage is continuously up and down.<\/p>\n
Niewiadoma is determined to fight, and so too is her team.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor sure, it\u2019s hard if you lose the yellow jersey, but I also told Kasia that it\u2019s not over yet,\u201d said teammate Antonia Niedermaier, who is both best young rider and sitting fifth overall.<\/p>\n
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\u201cTomorrow is another really, really hard day, so she should never stop believing. I still think everything is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Elisa Longo Borghini was the rider who was with Niewiadoma when she was chasing Vollering in the finale. The Italian was second on the stage, 17 seconds behind, and is 3:05 back overall.<\/p>\n
Victory for her in the GC is surely not on the cards but she took encouragement from Saturday and vowed to fight on.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were there, just 50 metres behind Demi, she said of Saturday\u2019s chase. \u201cI moved aside, hoping Kasia could make one final acceleration to close the gap, but I immediately realised she had no more energy,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s when I understood we wouldn\u2019t catch her anymore.<\/p>\n
\u201cTomorrow will be another tough day and, as I\u2019ve said over the past few days, we will give everything we have and then see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018We still have the same goal\u2019<\/h2>\nKasia Niewiadoma accused Celia G\u00e9ry of improper tactics after she lost the yellow jersey (Photo: Tim de Waele\/Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Another who will dig in is jersey Marlen Reusser (Movistar Team), who remains third overall but who is now 1:12 back.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s a big deficit to overcome but she\u2019ll go down trying, with her brief stint in yellow this week giving her all the encouragement she needs.<\/p>\n
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Vollering knows she will be under fire from all sides, but is feeling up to the challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year I tried also very hard, and the body didn\u2019t want to. So I think I appreciate it even more now \u2013 to feel that your body is healthy and that you can really go over the limit for your dreams.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not always that that happens. You need to be lucky as well with your health and everything that\u2019s going around\u201d<\/p>\n
Nothing is guaranteed, but going into the last stage in the lead is exactly where she wanted to be.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the moment, we\u2019re living the dream,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019ve won two stages already \u2026 And I will do everything in my power to keep that yellow, of course.\u201d<\/p>\n
Niewiadoma will try equally hard to recapture the Maillot Juane.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have still the same goal, right? Like go get the yellow jersey. We need to talk with the team and evaluate what\u2019s the plan now.\u201d<\/p>\n
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See stage details here.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Shane Stokes<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Published August 8, 2026 05:12PM<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Z8D_2991.jpg”] Shane Stokes Published August 8, 2026 05:12PM With just eight seconds between the two top contenders, former GC winners Demi Vollering and Kasia Niewiadoma, Sunday\u2019s finale of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift was already set to be a high-stakes showdown. However the tension was drastically ratcheted upwards after stage 8 […]<\/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-2085456","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\/2085456","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=2085456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2085456\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2085456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2085456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2085456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Kasia](\"https:\/\/velo-cdn.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/GettyImages-2289606567.jpg?width=3840&auto=webp&quality=75&fit=cover\")