{"id":62716,"date":"2026-08-08T01:50:21","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T01:50:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/62716\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T01:50:21","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T01:50:21","slug":"24-champ-takes-lead-as-womens-tour-de-france-nears-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/62716\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201924 champ takes lead as Women\u2019s Tour de France nears end"},"content":{"rendered":"

National Sports<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Women’s Tour de France winner Katarzyna Niewiadoma-Phinney of Poland celebrates on the podium wearing the overall leader’s yellow jersey after the eighth stage of the 2024 race that started in Le Grand-Bornand and finished in Alpe d’Huez, France, in August 2024. (AP file photo)<\/p>\n

MONT VENTOUX, France (AP) — Katarzyna Niewiadoma-Phinney launched a decisive attack up Mont Ventoux to win the seventh stage of the Women\u2019s Tour de France and take the overall lead from Marlen Reusser on Friday.<\/p>\n

The 2024 champion was in tears as she put on the yellow jersey and now leads 2023 champion Demi Vollering by 15 seconds and Reusser by 39 with two stages left.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just so tired and so blown away with what just happened,\u201d Niewiadoma-Phinney said. \u201cWhen I started climbing I looked to the right and I saw my parents standing on the roadside. They came today by surprise. I saw my father yelling for me and I thought I had to make him proud.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reusser and Vollering could not follow Niewiadoma-Phinney when she broke away about six miles from the top of Ventoux, one of the most iconic climbs in cycling with its barren, lunar aspect.<\/p>\n

It was a first Tour stage win for Niewiadoma-Phinney, who won the 2024 edition without claiming a stage win. Gritting her teeth in the final few hundred meters, the Polish rider dug deep and with the sun gleaming behind her, raised her arms after crossing the line.<\/p>\n

She then almost lost balance through fatigue and had to be helped off her bike. Moments later, she was all smiles as she sat on the road and poured cooling water over her head.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never chase victories for the sake of winning, I target them because I like this beautiful feeling I have right now,\u201d said Niewiadoma-Phinney, who is married to former men\u2019s Tour sprinter Taylor Phinney.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came here (before) to Mont Ventoux with my friends and my husband, and we rode up the climb three times,\u201d she recalled. \u201cThe feeling of reaching the top of this mountain was amazing. From that moment, I just wanted to experience that feeling again. The pure joy of riding, as if I was a kid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vollering dropped Reusser in the closing stages of the 15.7-kilometer ascent of Ventoux, which has featured several time on the men\u2019s Tour. In one of the darkest days in Tour history, British rider Tom Simpson died after collapsing during a tortuous ascent in 1967.<\/p>\n

Weekend finale<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s eighth stage is a flat 172-kilometer route for sprinters finishing in Nice, where the race ends after another mountain stage on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Stage 9 features four sharp climbs of Col d\u2019\u00c8ze, nestled in the hills overlooking the tiny Principality of Monaco.<\/p>\n

Two years ago, Niewiadoma-Phinney beat Vollering on the final stage to win the race by just four seconds.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP sports: https:\/\/apnews.com\/sports<\/p>\n

\"\"\/<\/p>\n

Women’s Tour de France winner Katarzyna Niewiadoma-Phinney of Poland celebrates on the podium wearing the overall leader’s yellow jersey after the eighth stage of the 2024 race that started in Le Grand-Bornand and finished in Alpe d’Huez, France, in August 2024. (AP file photo)<\/p>\n

Women\u2019s Tour de France winner Katarzyna Niewiadoma-Phinney of Poland celebrates on the podium wearing the overall leader\u2019s yellow jersey after the eighth stage of the 2024 race that started in Le Grand-Bornand and finished in Alpe d\u2019Huez, France, in August 2024. (AP file photo)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"National Sports Women’s Tour de France winner Katarzyna Niewiadoma-Phinney of Poland celebrates on the podium wearing the overall…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[38989,1428,6501,5,38497,38129,38990,38984,4352],"class_list":["post-62716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-france","tag-3rd-to-last-stage","tag-cycling","tag-demi-vollering","tag-france","tag-katarzyna-niewiadoma-phinney","tag-marlen-reusser","tag-mont-ventoux","tag-taylor-phinney","tag-women"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}