Tour de France Femmes stage seven: Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney shakes up GC in thrilling solo ride

Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney moved into the Tour de France Femmes yellow jersey with a solo win on Mont Ventoux.

The Polish rider attacked from a reduced group with Demi Vollering and Thursday’s race leader Marlen Reusser 9.7 kilometers from the finish. The pair, who had been first and second in the general classification (GC), did not respond and the gap grew to 1:45, as Niewiadoma-Phinney claimed her first stage victory at the Tour de France Femmes.

After surging multiple times on the way up, Vollering eventually managed to distance herself from Reusser in the final kilometer to reduce the GC gap to 15 seconds between her and Niewiadoma-Phinney. The Swiss dropped to fourth on the day with a 1:42 deficit, 39 seconds down from the leader overall.

In a hotly contested stage on the slopes of Ventoux, the ‘Giant of Provence’, Elisa Longo Borghini, led a chase group with team-mate Paula Blasi to rise to fourth in the overall standings, and third on the day. Chasing the podium, she is 2:59 behind the leader and 2:20 behind Reusser overall.

Friday was the Tour’s first mountain stage, with slopes of up to 10 per cent gradient and an average 8.8 per cent for 15.7km on the legendary climb.

SD Worx-Protime’s Anna van der Breggen did not start the stage after struggling with illness.

The Athletic breaks down the day’s action.

Niewiadoma-Phinney divides and conquers

Vollering and Reusser let Niewiadoma-Phinney go because they were looking at each other — a flaw Canyon-SRAM had predicted.

The stage winner entered Friday further down on Vollering than the Dutchwoman had been on Reusser, so naturally she might have paid more attention to the yellow-jersey incumbent. But Niewiadoma-Phinney has finished on the podium in every edition of this race and won it in 2024. Hesitation ultimately did for Vollering and Reusser.

The writing had been on the wall since stage five, when Canyon-SRAM had noticed bickering between their rivals. Niewiadoma-Phinney tried to exploit it then, launching her sprint early. She was eventually caught by Vollering — but the idea was there.

Movistar and FDJ have to learn their lesson from this stage. But make no mistake: Niewiadoma-Phinney’s ride was incredibly strong in its own right, and it should not be overlooked how she built a lead of nearly two minutes on the race leader and favourite at the time.

With Antonia Niedermaier riding well alongside her too, the 31-year-old will have gained a lot of confidence for the final two days of the Tour.

GC blown apart — so who is in the best position?

There are only two days left in the biggest grand tour of the season, and who wins overall is still up in the air.

Niewiadoma-Phinney has done the fans a favour by bringing the top three within 39 seconds of each other, which could be chipped away at on the four ascents of the Col d’Eze (which is 7.7km at 5.9 per cent) on the final day.

Vollering is only 15 seconds off the Polish rider too, keeping her well in contention. Something will have to change, however, to avoid the same mistakes of this ascent, particularly as Niewiadoma-Phinney can afford to turn defensive, at least for Saturday’s ride.

The new yellow-jersey wearer was the last of the top three to still have her domestique with her on Friday’s stage, with Niedermaier outlasting Celia Gery and the Movistar team, though the former was pulling in the group early in the day.

Reusser and Vollering will have to be proactive and race smartly, then, to try and usurp Niewiadoma-Phinney — who has that and the time cushion to her benefit.

While the final stage has climbs to attack on and the organisers categorise it as a mountain stage, it has descents in between to rest on.

The punchier profile, only 99km in length, could suit Vollering the best, as she can draw on her hilly stage-five win, where she finished with more in the tank than her competitors.

Team tactics helped make this a thrilling watch

While there are a number of strong domestiques in the peloton, most of them fell off early into the climb. Only Blasi was able to stay with her leader until the final kilometers.

The steep slopes of Ventoux have a part to play in that, but it is also indicative of a wider trend in women’s cycling. It is rare to see a team able to completely control the peloton in numbers, as could be seen on Thursday, and many teams thin to only one, if any, domestique in the final stages.

The effect of this is an arguably more exciting race for individuals, where more emphasis is placed on what each rider can do on the day.

On the other side of the coin, team tactics can be an important facet of cycling and equally fun to watch over the whole stage. Longo Borghini introduced another exciting layer of jeopardy to the race by overtaking Reusser in the final kilometer.

Would she have been able to do that without Blasi there to ride with? Less certain. UAE Team L’Imad have been vindicated in their commitment to their tactics, despite some earlier this week criticising the decision not to make Blasi a team leader so she could ride for herself.

Money is a limitation, with the sport growing but teams still having small budgets for transfers. Judging by the excitement all the way up Ventoux — with a wide range of fans lining the road with flags and signs — the appetite for the sport is only growing, so those finances should not be an issue for long.

There was plenty of excitement on the ascent of Mont Ventoux (Nicolas Tucat/ AFP via Getty Images)

What is up next Saturday?

The penultimate stage of the race will take the peloton 175km from Sisteron to Nice, making it the longest day of riding.

Vollering, Reusser and Longo Borghini will want to gain some time on this route as they chase the final podium spots. Canyon-SRAM directeur sportive Rolf Aldag suggested Niewiadoma-Phinney will “make sure no one goes anywhere”.

With the profile less challenging, she can afford to ride in a more defensive way, and it will be up to the other rivals to decide how to play it.

Stage 7 Top 5

1. Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney, Canyon-SRAM, 4 hours, 22 minutes and 53 seconds
2. Demi Vollering, FDJ United Suez, +1 minute and 16 seconds
3. Elisa Longo Borghini, UAE Team-L’imad, +1 minute and 42 seconds
4. Marlen Reusser, Movistar, +1 minute and 46 seconds
5. Paula Blasi, UAE Team-L’imad, +1 minute and 48 seconds

Overall standings

1. Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney, Canyon-SRAM, 24 hours, 7 minutes, 34 seconds
2. Demi Vollering, FDJ United Suez, +15 seconds
3. Marlen Reusser, Movistar, +39 seconds
4. Elisa Longo Borghini, UAE Team-L’imad, +2 minutes and 59 seconds
5. Antonia Niedermaier, Canyon-SRAM, +3 minutes and 21 seconds