Demi Vollering climbed to solo victory atop the legendary Col de Tourmalet to claim the Queen Stage of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift.
Jumping from a reduced peloton, Vollering caught and passed Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon//Sram Racing) with 5 kilometres to go on the foggy upper slopes of the hors category climb to take the third win for SD Worx.
Niewiadoma held on for second and world champion Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) crossed the line in third place 2:34 later in extremely foggy conditions.
In a dominating show of strength, Vollering crushed her competitors and is the new overall leader with one stage to go. She leads by 1:50 on Niewiadoma, and 2:28 on van Vleuten, leader into the stage, Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx) dropped to fourth place overall at 2:35.
In the first salvo for the GC battle, Vollering followed an attack by defending champion Van Vleuten on the first climb of the day, the Col d’Aspin, with Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon//Sram Racing) also joining the move.
Sensing her chance, Niewiadoma attacked the two pre-race favourites who were playing cat and mouse on the category 1 climb. Niewiadoma, one of the very best descenders in the women's pro peloton, increased her gap to 20 seconds on the long descent off the Col d’Aspin. Behind her, refusing the work together, van Vleuten and Vollering were reeled by a group of chasers that included the leader Kopecky.
Vollering’s teammate Marlen Reusser set a brutal pace at the front of the group, putting many riders under pressure and reducing the numbers. Not liking the stalemate situation, Juliette Labous (DSM-Firmenich) attacked but was not able to get away on the lower slopes of the iconic Tourmalet while Niewiadoma still had eight seconds gap.
Finally, Vollering put in a vicious attack with only Van Vleuten able to briefly match her pace, and she quickly caught the Polish rider. One kilometre later, the defending champion was 33 seconds in arrears fighting to limit her losses. Keeping a steady pace, Vollering conquered the fabled climb, crossing the line 1:58 ahead of Niewiadoma.
"It’s amazing, I saw it a lot of times in my dream of course but to wear it [the yellow jersey] now in real life, it feels really good," Vollering said. "Marlen and Lotte did a really good job today. The whole team, everybody is so super strong in our team and they believe so much in me, that means a lot to me."
Though she has a comfortable GC lead, Vollering intends to go all in tomorrow at the 22km time trial in Pau to conclude Tour de France Femmes.
"Tomorrow is still a hard day, a time trial day. Of course, if everything goes well there, I hope that I can keep the yellow,"
"I will still go full gas, I will still do a good TT. Because it’s good training of course, and to see how I can still go after today. It’s also interesting of course to see how far you can come, and how deep you can still go after today. All good things to know for the future."
How it Unfolded
The peloton set off from the Pyrenean commune of Lannemezan with 89.8km ahead of them, a summit finish on the Col du Tourmalet, and the news of seven abandons from the race.
Most notable among them were the two Elisas from Lidl-Trek, with Elisa Balsamo leaving the race with fatigue, and Elisa Longo-Borghini suffering from a skin infection.
Further to those riders, though, Veronica Ewers (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB), Chiara Consonni (UAE Team ADQ), Maria Giulia Confalonieri (Uno-X), Martina Alzini (Cofidis) and Babette van der Wolf (Lifeplus Wahoo) would also not begin on stage 7.
The early kilometres beyond the neutralisation were tense, and Lianne Lippert (Movistar) was caught in a crash within the first 10km. Van Vleuten was lucky to narrowly avoid the fall. Lippert was soon back on her bike, though, and back to her duties as Van Vleuten’s lieutenant.
Attacks came quickly, with Julie De Wilde (Fenix-Deceuninck) and Alice Barnes (Human Powered Health) amongst the early agitators, while Lizzie Deignan (Lidl-Trek) also made a break for freedom from the group. However, by the 20km mark, every significant move had been reeled in.
Susanne Andersen (Uno-X) and Margot Pompanon (St Michel-Mavic-Auber93) managed to squeeze out around 45-seconds just ahead of the intermediate sprint, enough for them to share the points between them, but by the base of the Col d’Aspin, a fierce peloton had pulled the escapees in.
Now began the selection for the general classification, and it wasn’t long before the major favourites shed all but the strongest in the peloton for the 12km climb at a gradient of 6.5%. With 40km of the route remaining, only a dozen riders remained in the main group on the climb, with Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx), Pfeiffer Georgi (DSM–Firmenich), Juliette Labous (DSM–Firmenich), Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-Sram), Amanda Spratt (Lidl-Trek), Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ-Suez), Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (AG Insurance–Soudal–Quick-Step), Lippert and Van Vleuten amongst them.
Half way into the climb, Lippert began to tear apart the GC favourites, with even Van Vleuten showing signs of fatigue during the effort.
However, despite appearances, Van Vleuten’s move came in the final kilometre of the climb and only Niewiadoma and Vollering found themselves able to keep pace.
The three riders stayed together over the summit of the Col d’Aspin, and it began to look like the podium of the 2023 Tour de France was taking shape.
The descent was a tense one, with the tactical stalemate between the major race favourites Vollering and Van Vleuten offering Niewiadoma a rare opportunity to ride free of the two duelling riders. Playing a game of cat-and-mouse, neither was eager to work to cut down Niewiadoma’s advantage - which grew to around 45 seconds at its largest.
Meanwhile, the group of GC favourites which had been shed by Vollering, Niewiadoma and Van Vleuten was edging back on the chasing duo. Astoundingly the yellow jersey Lotte Kopecky had kept herself in this group despite the savage mountain terrain. A bridging effort by Marlene Reusser (SD Worx) saw the two groups brought together as they began the ascent of the Col du Tourmalet.
With 17km and 7.3% average, the Tourmalet was set to be war of attrition for this leading group, and the chilly and steep summit finish was likely to be where the decisive move would take place.
Niewiadoma held her lead for the first five kilometres of the climb, and saw her gap reduce to a handful of seconds as she sat within the sights of the Tour de France Femmes favourites, and the battle for the yellow jersey was beginning.
Despite the fleeting advantage, though, Niewiadoma managed to extend her lead back to 30 seconds as the race entered the final 10km.
Uttrup Ludwig was dropped from the favourites group along with Ane Santesteban (Jayco-AlUla), which wilted to a group of five containing Kopecky, Labous, Van Vleuten, Reusser and Moolman-Pasio.
The major favourites rode into the final foggy 6km together, as Niewiadoma managed to maintain her 45-second advantage ahead of the final ascent.
It was just outside 5km remaining that Vollering made her decisive move, as Van Vlieten and her other chasers drifted into the mist behind her. Ahead of her were 33 seconds to bridge to stage leader Niewiadoma.
She cut that lead apart in less than one kilometre, and with the field blown to pieces behind her, Vollering rode to the summit alone in a dominant display to take the stage victory, and likely the overall win at the second Tour de France Femmes. Van Vleuten was left to chase for a podium spot.
