'I won on Mont Ventoux, I feel like that was the biggest day of my life' - Niewiadoma-Phinney savours Tour podium

Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon//SRAM) described her Mont Ventoux victory as the biggest day of her cycling life after finishing second at the Tour de France Femmes on Sunday.

Demi Vollering (FDJ United-Suez) won the final stage in Nice and secured the yellow jersey by 1:18, bringing the second-closest general classification battle in the five editions of the modern race to an end.

Niewiadoma-Phinney had flipped the race on its head on Mont Ventoux, attacking with 10km remaining and winning alone by 1:16 over Vollering. She overturned a 1:17 deficit to Marlen Reusser (Movistar) to take yellow and claim her first Tour stage win, while Vollering focused on Reusser.

“I won on Mont Ventoux, and I feel like that was the biggest day of my life, cycling-wise,” Niewiadoma-Phinney said at the post-race press conference. “I’m super proud and happy about it.”

Although she could not retain yellow in Nice, the 2024 champion said she was satisfied after giving her “absolute best” across the nine-day race.

“Demi is of course extremely strong, and it’s not that I lost to a rookie,” she said. “She also makes me work harder and then dream to come back here and get the yellow jersey again.”

Second place in the final GC continued Niewiadoma-Phinney’s remarkable run of podium finishes at every Tour de France Femmes. She finished third on three occasions, won in 2024 and added a runner-up result in 2026.

She said this had been her strongest performance at the race and that her preparation had given her greater confidence for future editions. Canyon//SRAM also placed Antonia Niedermaier fourth overall, with the German winning the white jersey as the best young rider.

“I feel like there are a lot of women right now at a similar level,” Niewiadoma-Phinney said. “It’s all about those little gains you can make, or maybe mental strength and mental approach that gets you into yellow.”

Longo Borghini rolls the dice for third

Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team L’IMAD) completed a late recovery to take third overall, having lost 1:03 to Vollering in the time trial before conceding another 1:43 on stage 5.

Longo Borghini started the final stage almost two minutes behind Reusser in the chase for the last podium place. Reusser had already been dropped on the second ascent of the Col d’Èze and then crashed on the descent, eventually falling to 14th overall after losing over 24 minutes at the finish.

“I never stopped believing that I could stand on the podium in Nice,” Longo Borghini said in the post race press conference. “I kept telling myself that the Tour would finish in Nice. I’ve been scratching seconds here and there every single day after the bad luck on the time trial and after stage 5, and today it paid off.”

Her UAE team pushed the pace on the front as they had seen that Reusser was starting to struggle the day before. This turned out to be the case and the team’s aggressive approach bore fruit with a very combative challenge for the podium on the final day.

“Sometimes you have to roll the dice, and if it goes, it goes,” she said. “Who remembers fourth in a Tour de France? Maybe only myself, but nobody else. I wanted to step on the podium, so today we went all in for that.”

The result followed repeated questions about UAE’s decision to race with multiple leaders rather than committing fully to Paula Blasi, who eventually finished fifth overall and second in the young rider classification.

Longo Borghini said scrutiny of the team had affected the riders personally. She accepted that its leadership structure was open to questions but asked journalists to consider the people involved when discussing internal relationships.

“Behind an athlete there is a person, there is a girl, a woman, and we do suffer a little bit sometimes when we read some silly stuff,” she said. “Sometimes I just think we should think twice before writing down things.”

On the final stage, Blasi worked for Longo Borghini before the Italian helped position her teammate for the sprint. A late puncture delayed Longo Borghini, but Blasi finished second on the stage and the Italian secured her first Tour de France Femmes podium.

Cover image credit: BILLY CEUSTERS