It took one minute and one second for Kasia Niewiadoma to break Demi Vollering’s heart in the nail-biting grand finale of the 2024 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, with the Polish rider crossing the line just in time to hold onto the yellow jersey and force Vollering to think of all the what ifs.
Alpe d’Huez calls itself une montagne d’émotions - the mountain of emotions - and for Vollering it was disappointment, distraughtness and despondence that were the overwhelming feelings she experienced when the overall defeat dawned on her.
The emotions flooded out for both riders but cycling’s beautiful and cruel reality once against reared its head as one rider’s elation juxtaposed with another’s complete misery - Vollering experiencing the latter having lost the race by just four seconds, the narrowest margin of any Tour de France, men’s or women’s.
After a crash lost her the jersey and 1:47 on her rival on stage 5, a photo finish loss saw her miss out on four bonus seconds and a late surge saw her only reduce the deficit to Niewiadoma by four seconds on yesterday’s finale up Le Grand-Bornand, the what ifs could only lead Vollering to tears at the finish.
“At this moment not so good. First of all, I feel really empty after today’s effort but of course, also I’m a bit disappointed that I couldn’t win the yellow jersey by just four seconds, that’s a bit sour for me at the moment,’ said Vollering in an emotional winner’s press conference.
“The day from the crash, I mean that's cycling - sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. Of course, there are a lot of ifs.
“If I would jump on the bike a little bit earlier [after crashing]. If I would win in Liège from Puck [Pieterse]. If yesterday I attacked a bit earlier. There are so many ifs but you don’t buy anything from ifs so I can think very long about that but it only makes me sad,” said Vollering as the tears began to fall again. “I think the way how I raced today, I can be proud of that.”
Vollering wiped away the tears as she tried to explain the feelings of losing yellow by the barest margin the sport has ever seen. A hard task, of course, but made even harder by just how much she’d put into trying to wrest back yellow at the last.
The plan was simple, launch four SD Worx-Protime teammates into the break and try and get them over the Col du Glandon so Vollering had help in the valley between that hors categorie test and the one that followed it - Alpe d’Huez.
She made her move over Glandon after great work from Niamh Fisher-Black and dropped Niewiadoma. But as her advantage went out to the magic 1:06 she needed, taking the 10 bonus seconds available on the line for the winner into account, the break had been caught, her gap began to stagnate and Niewiadoma had help from other teams.
“I already had a big gap and I just hoped it was a little bit more woman against woman fight and that there were fewer riders who could work in the valley,” said Vollering, who was away over Glandon alongside Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix-Deceuninck) and Valentina Cavallar (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) briefly.
“For example, Lucinda [Brand] (Lidl-Trek) did a lot of pushing there and if you have only climbers one by one in the valley then I think it’s easier to do it but now it was a bit harder because there were still good workers in that group.”
Vollering’s other issue was that Rooijakkers also started the day ahead of her on GC, by two seconds, so she couldn't tow her compatriot up Alpe d’Huez or she would hand her the jersey. They tried to cooperate but information from the car meant Rooijakkers had to hold the wheel.
“I attacked and only Pauliena [Rooijakkers] could follow. She was really strong and then I actually rode my own race and did the downhill as fast as I could,” said Vollering.
“On the flat, I was pushing and sometimes she wanted to turn with me but then at one point she said she was not allowed to turn any more so that was a little bit sad because if you can work there with two then it’s easier to arrive at the Alpe d’Huez also with a bigger gap.”
Vollering gives everything up Alpe d'Huez
With clear sunglasses on all day in the changing conditions from sunny to misty, Vollering’s effort was etched on her face, right from when she launched with 2.4km until the top of Glandon, all the way until she crossed the line at Alpe d’Huez with her arms spread, not yet knowing that defeat was closely following her stage victory.
“I just tried to keep riding as hard as I could but I was really empty so it was really hard. It was a big fight with myself there,” said Vollering, also wary of the danger Rooijakkers presented.
“Of course, I was still a little scared that if Pauliena would still win from me then she would also win the yellow jersey from me so it was a really hard battle but I gave it my everything.”
She didn’t make it out as an excuse but Vollering did comment on how some lingering pain after the high-speed crash on stage 5 affected her throughout the 150km stage.
“I think on Col du Glandon, after that effort, I felt my back. I had a lot of back pain I think from the crash because I crashed full on my butt and it’s all very stiff there,” Vollering explained.
“So I think with lots of climbing that was coming up now then on Alpe d’Huez, I was just very empty and I tried everything I could to stay out that worked but it was just not enough and that’s a pity.
Distraught as she was, Vollering did try to look to the positives and move on from what was an almost perfect Tour de France Femmes, barring just that crash on the approach to Amnéville. She’ll certainly be back, albeit probably not with SD Worx-Protime, but Vollering will be back to avenge this most devastating heartbreak.
“Of course, I mean, in the end, I still won two stages, I was one time second and one time third. For myself, it’s also the best Tour de France I did so far so I think I should be really proud of that,” she concluded. “And that because of the crash, I didn't win the yellow jersey is very sad but it's part of cycling unfortunately and it's sad that that makes the difference here.”
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