Kasia Niewiadoma celebrated a hard-fought second place on stage 5, where she moved into the yellow jersey at the Tour de France Femmes. The Canyon-SRAM rider was part of a small front group that emerged after a mass crash with 6km to go split the field. However, she said she was unaware that overnight leader Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime) was involved in the accident that caused her to lose 1:47 in Amnéville.
"I didn't know that a crash happened and thought that the field split up on the descent because it has happened many times leading into the final. At that moment, racing instinct kicked in, and we just wanted to make it to the final," Niewiadoma said.
"We knew the final would be good for me. We didn't recon the stage, so we were not sure what the last 500 metres looked like, but our main goal was to win the stage, and then we learned about everything that happened [in the crash - ed.].
"It's not something we celebrate or are proud of but is also part of racing, unfortunately."
A break of three was almost caught near the end of the 152.5km stage from Bastogne to Amnéville when a sharp chicane out of a roundabout just over 6km from the finish caused a mass crash. Roughly 25 riders, including Vollering, hit the ground.
A group that included Niewiadoma and teammate Chloé Dygert split off the front, and the time trial world champion put the pressure on until 1.2km to go, when Niewiadoma attacked. In the end, it was the Polish rider along with Blanka Vas (SD Worx-Protime), Liane Lippert (Movistar) and Kristen Faulkner (EF-Oatly-Cannondale) who sprinted for the line with Vas taking the win.
"This whole week, I'm asking the girls to tell me what to do and the whole time Kasia is like, 'go Chloé, go Chloé', I'm just following what I'm supposed to do and getting good guidance," said Dygert, who arrived at the Tour de France Femmes after winning the gold medal in the Team Pursuit at the Olympic Games.
Dygert confirmed that she didn't know Vollering had been injured in the crash. "At that time, no, I heard that there was a crash on that turn, but again, I just followed what I was told by our leader," she said.
Soraya Paladin, who also made it in the front group, said the riders were notified of the crash after the race had finished, and she expressed her concern for Vollering.
"I only realised at the finish line when they told me, in the race, I didn't know it. On one hand, it's nice to have the yellow jersey, but it's not nice to take it because of a crash. I hope that Vollering is OK, and they will fight in the climbs," she said,
Niewiadoma now leads the Tour de France Femmes GC standings, 19 seconds ahead of Faulkner and 22 seconds ahead of Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck). Vollering dropped to ninth place, 1:19 back. However, the overall classification is not sewn up with the two mountain stages still to come: stage 7 into La Grand Bornand and stage 8, which finishes at the top of Alpe d'Huez.
"1:19 in the mountains is nothing, to be honest. I also know that I spent a lot of time preparing for those two final stages. I feel like since starting in Rotterdam, I've just been waiting for those mountains," Niewiadoma said.
"In some ways, I feel confident, knowing I put a lot of effort and work into improving my long climbing skills. I am also aware that Demi is extremely strong, and equally, she has been working on the same thing, so it is a fair battle."
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