It’s been seven years since Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) won an overall title in a major stage race, but she is mentally and physically prepared to bring home the yellow jersey at the Tour de France Femmes atop Alpe d’Huez on Sunday.
Her most recognisable stage race overall victories are OVO Energy Women’s Tour and Emakumeen Bira, and she has been a consistent contender with podium finishes at the Giro d’Italia and Tour de France Femmes.
Her wins have been few and far between, but she has recently experienced a turning of the tides, winning the UCI Gravel World Championships last autumn and La Flèche Wallonne this spring, her first road race victory since winning the Amstel Gold Race five years ago.
Speaking with the international press in the mixed zone at Le Grand-Bornand after stage 6 on Saturday, Niewiadoma said that winning the Tour de France Femmes would be the most significant victory of her career.
“Mentally, I feel like it’s been so long since La Flèche Wallonne, for me, doing a bike race, so to win a stage race like the Tour de France would be the cherry of my whole career,” she said.
“It’s less about mental preparation and more about physical preparation. Especially since the stage race has been very hard so far, and we still have 4,000 m to gain tomorrow.
“It is about managing stress and fatigue and pressure and squeezing all out on Alpe d’Huez.”
The peloton will depart for the eighth and final stage from Le Grand-Bornand and cover 149.9km, including three major ascents Col de Tamié (9.5km at 4%), and then the Col du Glandon (19.7km at 7.2%) before reaching Alpe d’Huez (13.8km at 8.1%) where the overall champion will be crowned.
“There are so many scenarios that can happen. I see a bigger breakaway going over the first climb [Col de Tamie] and then everyone waiting for Alpe d’Huez,” Niewiadoma said.
“It’s a very long and steep climb that can change things so much. The whole GC could be turned upside down. It’s all about managing your energy and fuelling in order to arrive at the bottom of Alpe d’Huez with the energy to push your best power.”
Niewiadoma took the overall race lead on stage 5 into Amnéville after previous leader and defending champion Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime) was involved in a mass crash with 6km to go.
The Polish rider now leads the GC with 27 seconds ahead of Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck) and 37 seconds ahead of stage 6 winner Cédrine Kerbaol (Ceratizit-WNT), Vollering currently in eighth place at 1:15 back.
Saturday’s penultimate stage 7 marked the first mountain stage won by breakaway rider Justine Ghekiere (AG Insurance-Soudal), and chaser Maëva Squiban (Arkéa-B&B Hotels) claimed second place on the day.
Behind them, on the final ascent to Le Grand-Bornand, a stalemate race for the GC played out as Vollering crossed the line in third, picking up valuable time bonus seconds ahead of Neiwiadoma, who finished fourth.
Asked if she was surprised at the cagey final that resulted in no major attack from Vollering, Niewiadoma said, “Not really. To be honest. I don’t focus only on [Demi]. The field is filled with so many talented riders and the teams are very strong.
“It’s not like it was a couple of years ago that you had one or two dominating teams. Now, we have many of them, and each wants to seize their opportunity during this race.
“As a team, we focus on our goal, and we try to manage what is happening around us and not put all that attention on SD Worx because there are many more teams that are very dangerous.”
FDJ-SUEZ were the dominant team on the day, riding on the front to support their leader and local favourite Évita Muzic, while Niewiadoma and Vollering were isolated on the upper slopes of the last climb.
Niewiadoma was the rider who launched an attack that forced Vollering to react, which she said helped her see who had the strength to respond.
“To be honest, on the last climb, at first, the pace was set quite hard by FDJ, and after a little descent, not much was going on. It was interesting because I felt like other riders were breathing hard, so someone was attacking,” she said.
“To be honest, I don’t know; sometimes when you race, you just go with your instincts, so when I went, or wanted to chase Pauliena [Rooijakkers] down, it was also to see how others were feeling.
“I felt good today. I felt like it was easy for me to be responsive and quick, and I was racing and listening to my instincts. I was expecting more attacks, so it was interesting to see the final.”
Niewiadoma said she wasn’t concerned that she was isolated on the ascent as riders like Chloé Dygert and Soraya Paladin had done their work earlier in the stage.
“It’s nicer in some ways to have someone around, but it’s not because they didn’t want to. I saw them all putting in effort helping me throughout all the stages so far,” she said.
“It’s normal to sometimes give your 110%, and then you have nothing left. I’m grateful for their work and happy that despite everything, they just keep pushing every day and support me all the time.”
Niewiadoma is now in a position to win the overall title on Sunday, but there are a short list of contenders who will attempt to take the yellow jersey on the final day.
In addition to Vollering, powerful climbers among the top 12 also include Juliette Labous (dsm-firmenich PostNL), Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix-Deceuninck), Évita Muzic (FDJ-SUEZ) and Gaia Realini (Lidl-Trek).
Niewiadoma acknowledged the strength of the peloton at this race but also noted that next year’s return of Anna van der Breggen and Pauline Ferrad-Prévot to the WorldTour means that the fight for the yellow jersey will be wide open.
“I think that next year, having Anna van der Breggen and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot back in the peloton and looking at the youth like Neve Bradbury showing her strength at the Giro. I think the Tour de France will have a different winner every year.”
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