Thriller by the second in Alpe d'Huez: Niewiadoma wins Tour de France Femmes

The 150-kilometre stage 8 from Le Grand-Bornand to Alpe d'Huez promised to be something special right from the start. Not only because it was the toughest stage of the Tour of France, but also because the arrival on the historic Tour de France mountain was a first for the women and offered plenty of suspense right to the end - especially as the top 10 in the overall standings were less than 1:30 minutes apart at the start of the stage. In a thrilling finale, Demi Vollering and Pauliena Rooijakkers battled it out for the day's and overall victory. However, Katarzyna Niewiadoma, who was slightly behind but still leading the overall standings by a small margin, was also in contention for the title.

>> "Magical four seconds": Press celebrates "epic tour finale

In the end, four seconds decided the overall winner. Although Demi Vollering won in Alpe d'Huez and entered her name in the history books for that alone - for the Title defence was not enough, however. The Dutchwoman was unable to close the gap of 1:15 minutes on Katarzyna Niewiadoma in the overall standings despite her time bonus at the finish.

With Niewiadoma's victory, the Germans can also rejoice, as her team Canyon//SRAM Racing comes from Germany. The best German in the overall standings is Liane Lippert, who led the leading group for a while but slipped down the overall standings in the end and finished in 18th place.

>> All stages of the Tour de France Femmes at a glance

>> The start list - all the teams' line-ups

The result of stage 8

1. Demi Vollering (Team SD Worx - Protime) 4:34:14
2. Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix-Deceuninck) +0:04
3. Évita Muzic (FDJ - SUEZ) +1:01
4. Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon//SRAM Racing) +1:01
5. Gaia Realini (Lidl - Trek) +1:31
6. Cédrine Kerbaol (Ceratizit-WNT Pro Cycling Team) +3:15
7. Valentina Cavallar (Arkéa - B&B Hotels Women) +3:34
8. Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance - Soudal Team) +5:10
9. Niamh Fisher-Black (Team SD Worx - Protime) +5:14
10. Lucinda Brand (Lidl - Trek) +7:06

The overall ranking

1. Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon//SRAM Racing) 24:36:07
2. Demi Vollering (Team SD Worx -Protime) +0:04
3. Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix-Deceuninck) +0:10
4. Évita Muzic (FDJ - SUEZ) +1:21
5. Gaia Realini (Lidl - Trek) +2:19
6. Cedrine Kerbaol (Ceratizit-WNT Pro Cycling Team) +2:51
7. Sarah Gigante (AG Insurance - Soudal Team) +7:09
8. Lucinda Brand (Lidl - Trek) +8:06
9. Juliette Labous (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL) +8:07
10. Thalita de Jong (Lotto-Dstny Ladies) +8:12

How the 8th stage of the Tour de France Femmes went

The first few kilometres of the final stage of this year's Tour de France Femmes were quiet and the peloton stayed together. However, it wasn't long before the first mountain classification on the Col de Tarnié (category 2), where the first breakaway attempts were made. A group of around 20 riders, including Liane Lippert (Movistar Team) and Franziska Koch (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL), managed to break away from the peloton and fought for the mountain points. Justine Ghekiere (AG Insurance - Soudal Team) won ahead of Mischa Bredewold and Christine Majerus (both Team SD Worx-Protime).

The breakaway group, led by Team SD Worx-Protime, then continued to increase its lead over the peloton to around 3:00 minutes and chased towards the only sprint classification of the day, where Lorena Wiebes (Team SD Worx-Protime) secured the maximum possible 25 points ahead of her team-mate Christine Majerus and Olivia Baril (Movistar Team). The gap to the peloton finally narrowed as the breakaway group approached the second climb up to the Col du Glandon, the highest point of this year's Tour.

Vollering uses Col du Glandon

Here the breakaway group thinned out as more and more riders, including Lorena Wiebes, had to break away. The leading group now consisted of just seven riders, led by Liane Lippert, who was fighting to slip into the top 10 of the overall standings. Demi Vollering used the long and difficult climb to break away from the peloton and catch up with the chasing groups that had formed. The Dutchwoman continued to work her way forwards and reached the mountain classification in second place behind Valentina Cavallar (Arkéa - B&B Hotels Women). Her direct rival and overall leader Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon//SRAM Racing) arrived at the top in fifth place.

The race continued towards the climb to Alpe d'Huez and things got more and more exciting. Vollering set the pace and took the lead with Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix-Deceuninck). Both had roughly the same time gap to Katarzyna Niewiadoma in the overall standings (1:15 and 1:13 minutes respectively), and in the meantime they closed the gap to the Pole.

Exciting finale after Alpe d'Huez

With 13.7 kilometres to go, the climb to Alpe d'Huez finally began. Vollering and Rooijakkers were still in the lead and held a lead over Niewiadoma. The question was whether this would be big enough for the overall victory by the finish and which of the two leading riders would arrive in Alpe d'Huez first. It was only in the last few hundred metres that Vollering pulled ahead of Rooijakkers and took the sprint again. This makes her the first woman to win the Tour de France Femmes in Alpe d'Huez.

However, this was still not enough for overall victory. Katarzyna Niewiadoma crossed the finish line 1:01 minutes after Vollering and was still four seconds ahead in the overall standings despite the Dutchwoman's 10-second time bonus. She thus celebrates her first victory in the Tour de France Femmes after having to admit defeat to Demi Vollering last year.