Demi Vollering powers into yellow on Tour de France Femmes stage 7 with imperious Tourmalet attack

A stellar attack on the mountains from Demi Vollering (SD Worx) saw the Dutchwoman power away from Annemiek van Vleuten (Team Movistar), Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) and Lotte Kopecky (SD Worx) and into the yellow jersey.

Niewiadoma had been the sole leader having pushed away from the break to go out on her own but when Vollering attacked no-one could stay with her.

With just over 5km to go Vollering attacked in the fog on the mountains and after an initial moment of uncertainty it was clear that Van Vleuten was cracking and couldn’t keep the pace.

So too was the yellow jersey wearer in Kopecky as she struggled to keep up with Vollering and as the Dutchwoman powered past leader Niewiadoma the Polish rider was enough to be left in the wake of the SD Worx star.

The result moves Vollering into yellow on a historic day.

The penultimate stage of the 2023 Tour began with an attack from Julie De Wilde (Fenix-Deceuninck) as soon as the start flag went down at kilometre zero. Alice Barnes (Human Powered Health) went with her before they were brought back under control by peloton. Marta Lach (CERATIZIT-WNT Pro Cycling) was the next to go, but she too didn’t create much of a distance before she rejoined the bunch.

A few kilometres into the race Liane Lippert (Movistar) was involved in a crash with Maaike Coljé (Arkéa Pro Cycling Team) and Alena Amialiusik (UAE Team ADQ). The German national champion had the wind taken out of her as she hit the ground hard and was the last of the three to get back underway. She made her way back into the peloton in no time with Movistar team-mate Aude Biannic alongside her. Lach then staged another attack and while she didn’t manage to go clear solo, her move allowed a group of around nine other riders to join her to form a breakaway with a slight gap.

As with the prior attacks, they weren’t ahead for long and joined a strung-out peloton minutes later. Coralie Demay (St Michel – Mavic – Auber93) was the first to create an attack of any pertinence and with 74km to go left an unperturbed peloton to go up the road solo.

It wasn’t until just inside the 70km to go mark when Demay had a 40” lead to her advantage that there was a reaction from those behind. Quinty Ton (Liv Racing TeqFind) was the prime mover but similarly to Lach’s second attack, her reaction caused a larger group to break from the peloton who soon caught Demay within 5km of Ton’s initial move.

The breakaway group soon suffered the same fate as Demay and rejoined the bunch a kilometre later. Susanne Andersen (Uno-X Pro Cycling Team), who had been part of Ton’s breakaway group, initiated the next move and went clear again, this time with Margot Pompanon (St Michel – Mavic – Auber93) alongside her.

After a short-lived counterattack by Morgane Coston (Cofidis Women Team) the next decisive counter was made by Sara Poidevin (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB) who went in pursuit of the leading pair who were now 26” ahead with 57km remaining.

8kms later Poidevin became part of the peloton again, and further up the road in Sarrancolin, Pompanon took first place at the intermediate sprint. Kopecky led the peloton to the sprint mark and took third place with the breakaway group 22” ahead.

At the base of Col d’Aspin, the first climb, the breakaway riders were met by Team dsm-firmenich’s Juliette Labous and Pfeiffer Georgi who led the bunch. Movistar soon took over on the front as they looked to set Van Vleuten up well for an attack with Biannic pulling at the front followed by the World Champion who sat in third wheel behind her team-mates as the climb increased.

It was then Paula Patiño’s turn at the front after the strong effort from her French Movistar compatriot and Van Vleuten remained in a good position in a group of 31 riders as the peloton became detached as the gradient whittled the climbers from the sprinters.

Lippert took over from Patiño and Van Vleuten sat in second as the two increased the intensity on the climb. Quick reactions from Niewiadoma and Moolman-Pasio ensured they remained at the front of the action but at the same time Queen of the Mountains Yara Kastelijn (Fenix-Deceuninck) found herself in a group 40” behind.

With 5km ahead until the summit of Col d’Aspin Van Vleuten attacked at the front of the lead group but dogged as ever, Vollering got out of the saddle to remain with her and Niewiadoma stuck on the World Champion’s wheel to follow the attack. Moolman-Pasio struggled to stick with the trio and began to drop back as they went up the road.

They left the yellow jersey group in their wake and reached the summit with a lead of 52”. Niewiadoma took maximum points on the climb with Van Vleuten second after they both took turns at the front and Vollering sat comfortably at the back to cross the line third.

Fractures began to become apparent, particularly between the two Dutch riders in the breakaway group and despite Van Vleuten’s best efforts to encourage the World Tour leader to do some work on the front, Vollering remained unphased, particularly as she knew she had two SD Worx team-mates in the group behind.

The two continued to battle it out and while they became engaged in somewhat of a stalemate, Niewiadoma took her chance to go clear. At the finish line, she would later quote a Polish phrase that she thought of at the time that indicates while two people fight the third is winning, and she with her being the third person in the scenario, she seized the opportunity to shine on the descent.

The Dutch riders continued to play mind games with each other while Niewiadoma descended without them, at one point in a slightly odd turn of events viewers witnessed some track racing-esque tactics as Van Vleuten slammed on the breaks and decided not to work if Vollering wasn’t going to do the same.

With no love lost between them, Niewiadoma extended her lead at the front of the race to around 44” and Van Vleuten and Vollering were caught by the yellow jersey group that contained none of the World Champion’s team-mates.

Niewiadoma began to climb the imperious Col du Tourmalet alone 30” ahead of the chasing group who were being led strongly by Marlen Reusser (SD Worx). The Swiss national champion put in a huge effort at the front to bring them within 5” of Niewiadoma. Team-mate Kopecky remained in the group with an equally impressive ride for another stage in the Tour that would show her strength across the board and see her wear the yellow jersey for seven out of eight stages.

Despite the group almost closing in on Niewiadoma, she pushed on and would extend her lead again to 30” with 10km to go. After Reusser dropped back from the group Labous staged a few attacks as the road got steeper but none stuck. With 6km remaining Niewiadoma was still in the lead which had then increased to over 40”.

400 metres later Vollering upped the pace and dropped Labous but Van Vleuten stayed with her. A few hundred metres later she dropped the all-conquering Van Vleuten in a moment that felt like a changing of the guard from one cycling superstar to another and the turning of the pages in the sporting history books as the summit of the Tourmalet approached, to be followed in a few weeks by the end of the current World Champion’s final season before retirement.

Vollering caught Niewiadoma with 5km remaining and continued through the crowds which lined the Tourmalet, a significant moment for the women’s peloton to celebrate how far the sport has come thanks to their efforts and those of countless others over the years.

Now solo, Vollering continued to increase her lead as the road got steeper again and with 2km to go she had a lead of 55” on Niewiadoma and 1’31” on Van Vleuten behind her in third. At that point, Kopecky was back by 2’00” despite her awe-inspiring climbing, and Vollering moved ever closer to the yellow jersey.

With all of the chasers working incredibly hard behind her Vollering emerged from the clouds at the summit of Col du Tourmalet to be crowned winner of the queen stage and take her first Tour stage win with a lead of 1’58” in addition to the highly sought-after yellow jersey.

Niewiadoma crossed in an admirable second place to secure the Queen of the Mountains jersey before Van Vleuten finished in third, 2’24” behind Vollering. While she didn’t manage to retain her general classification lead, Kopecky’s sixth-place finish behind Labous and Moolman-Pasio ended a stage she could be incredibly proud of. All is not lost for the Belgian champion as she will wear the green jersey for the final stage for the first time in this year’s Tour, despite leading the points classification since the end of the first stage. Cédrine Kerbaol (CERATIZIT-WNT Pro Cycling) retains the white young rider jersey.

In the final stage on Sunday Vollering will fight to retain the yellow jersey and her 1’50” lead in the time trial in an aim to be crowned winner of the second edition of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift.