With a nail-biting finish, the 2024 edition of the Tour de France Femmes was one for the history books, as Demi Vollering, Pauliena Rooijakkers, and Katarzyna Niewiadoma battled for the GC victory on Col du Glandon and Alpe d’Huez right until the last kilometre.
It was the queen stage of the Tour de France Femmes, featuring two huge mountains in the second part: Col du Glandon and Alpe d’Huez. After crashing hard on Stage 5 and losing 75 seconds in the GC to Katarzyna Niewiadoma before the final stage, defending champion Demi Vollering would need to attack to reclaim her lead. Niewiadoma, who finished 3rd in the 2022 and 2023 editions, proved her status as a world-class climber on tough days with her performance on the Col du Tourmalet last year.
SD Worx had four riders in the breakaway, but did not gain much time as multiple teams were pulling in the peloton in the valley before Glandon. Austrian supertalent Valentina Cavallar, in only her 20th bike race, attacked from the peloton and bridged to the breakaway during the second part of the Glandon. In the peloton, Fisher-Black was pulling on the steep section of the Glandon. As expected, Vollering attacked, and Niewiadoma could not follow, quickly losing a minute. Pauliena Rooijakkers managed to stay with Vollering.
Cavallar was the fastest on Glandon with 4.65 ᵉW/kg for 66:15 min on the full climb and 4.90 ᵉW/kg for 34:52 min on the second part, which is 5.20 ᵉW/kg normalized at sea level. The shallow section in the middle did not suit for an even higher ᵉW/kg performance. Cavallar, Vollering and Rooijakkers crossed the summit together, gaining 57 seconds on the group containing Katarzyna Niewiadoma, Sarah Gigante, Gaia Realini and Evita Muzic.
Vollering was the faster descender but did not try to drop Rooijakkers on the descent, even though Rooijakkers was ahead of her by 2 seconds in the GC. Niewiadoma’s group was caught by Lucinda Brand, who did a massive pull for her teammate Gaia Realini, closing the gap to Vollering to 43 seconds before Alpe d’Huez. British hill climb champion Illi Gardner holds the climbing record on the legendary ascent, having achieved 5.21 ᵉW/kg for 46:37 on a training ride—one of the greatest performances ever on a climb. However, her record remained untouchable due to the hard racing before Alpe d’Huez.
Vollering had to do most of the work on the climb and in the valley. Despite being by far the strongest women’s climber in the world on such stages, the crash on Stage 5 and SD Worx’s questionable tactics cost her the Tour de France victory. Vollering won on Alpe d’Huez but lost the GC by 4 seconds to Niewiadoma, with Rooijakkers finishing only 10 seconds behind.
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Vollering completed Alpe d’Huez in 49:40 min, pushing 4.84 ᵉW/kg. She was 3:03 min slower than Gardner’s record, highlighting the significant impact a hard stage and tactics can have on climbing times. Despite struggling on Glandon, Niewiadoma recovered in the valley and lost only 18 seconds on the climb to Vollering, who was unable to drop Rooijakkers and was not fully pacing the entire climb for that reason. Sarah Gigante lost 3:46 min to Niewiadoma on the descent and in the valley but still posted the fifth-fastest time on Alpe d’Huez, with 4.77 ᵉW/kg for 50:21, finishing 7th in the GC in this great race.
I thought Evita Muzik was a total d*** scooting by Niewiadomo to deprive her of 4 seconds and almost the race. Very unsportsmanlike! Did she get paid by Vollering’s team to sit on the back of Niewiadomo all the time just to jump her in the last 5 meters to steal 4 seconds?
Demi Vollering is joining Muzics team next season