{"id":63263,"date":"2026-08-10T00:58:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T00:58:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/63263\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T00:58:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T00:58:24","slug":"demi-vollering-wins-tour-de-france-femmes-with-sensational-solo-attack-on-final-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/63263\/","title":{"rendered":"Demi Vollering wins Tour de France Femmes with sensational solo attack on final stage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Demi Vollering won the 2026 Tour de France Femmes after a sensational solo attack on the final stage saw her successfully defend her yellow jersey and secure a second Tour title.<\/p>\n

The Dutchwoman had duelled with closest rival Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney on the fourth and last ascent of the Col d\u2019Eze in southeastern France, with the pair wheel-to-wheel until Vollering\u2019s attack with 16km remaining finally saw off the Polish rider who finished 1 minute and 18 seconds behind the champion.<\/p>\n

As she crossed the line in Nice, Vollering made a heart sign with her hands and then got off her bike and lifted it above her head as she celebrated becoming the first woman to win the title twice in the modern era, which started in 2022.<\/p>\n

There was heartbreak, however, for Marlen Reusser who was third overall at the start of the day but crashed halfway through Stage 9, ending her hopes of a podium finish. The Movistar rider, who finished 14th overall, was understandably emotional afterwards.<\/p>\n

UAE Team L\u2019Imad\u2019s Elisa Longo Borghini rounded up the GC podium instead, despite saying after the race she had suffered a puncture in the final stretch.<\/p>\n

Her team-mate Paula Blasi finished the stage second, outsprinting Niewiadoma-Phinney in the chasing group, and was fifth overall but it was Germany\u2019s Antonia Niedermaier who won the white jersey for best youth rider thanks to her fourth-place overall finish.<\/p>\n

The Athletic breaks down the final day\u2019s key talking points.<\/p>\n

Vollering a dominant and deserving winner<\/p>\n

With the yellow jersey exchanging hands over the past few days, and Niewiadoma-Phinney incensed by her encounter with Celia Gery on Saturday,<\/a> the final day was set to be a true fight.<\/p>\n

The tussle between the top two was enthralling while it lasted, with Vollering and Niewiadoma-Phinney taking turns to punch before being reeled back. But, in the end, the difference between the two riders was immense.<\/p>\n

\"Demi<\/p>\n

\n Demi Vollering stands on top of the podium. (Nicolas Tucat \/ AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The gap was only eight seconds heading into the final day but, such was Vollering\u2019s dominance on the ninth stage, she finished over a minute ahead of Niewiadoma-Phinney.<\/p>\n

As she powered into Nice, the 29-year-old was beaming and punching the air. The victory didn\u2019t come easily \u2014 it almost felt odd she hadn\u2019t ridden in yellow until the final day \u2014 but hints of what was to come were there on the very first day. Vollering pushing on the ascent to sprint finish on stage 1, despite Lorena Wiebes looming, was a statement of intent.<\/p>\n

Vollering followed that up on the fifth day to take her first stage win. Mount Ventoux on Friday was a blip in her dominance as a tactical error left her battling with Reusser behind Niewiadoma-Phinney\u2019s stratospheric effort. <\/a><\/p>\n

But after her blistering spring season \u2014 she won four times, including the Tour of Flanders and Liege Bastogne Liege \u2014\u00a0the fairytale is now complete.<\/p>\n

A heartbreaking end for Reusser<\/p>\n

Reusser\u2019s crash on the second descent of the Col d\u2019Eze completely took her out of contention for the general classification (GC) battle.<\/p>\n

It was a heartbreaking end for a Swiss rider who had spent three days in the yellow jersey after winning the individual time trial on Stage 4. She was 1:12 behind Vollering heading into Sunday\u2019s final day and in good position to challenge for the title.<\/p>\n

Sunday\u2019s circuit was punchy, more suited to her than Mont Ventoux, and Reusser was expected to be one of the day\u2019s key animators.<\/p>\n

When the riders rolled back into Nice for the second time, however, she was more than six minutes behind, with broadcasters saying she had been in tears on her bike.<\/p>\n

It was a heartwarming sight to see her surrounded by her team during the race. The crowd welcomed her with louder cheers than the group before, too, but the devastation she must have felt was palpable.<\/p>\n

A memorable Tour and a worthy route<\/p>\n

The Tour has been box office from start to finish \u2014 and the route has played a huge part in that.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve been treated to sprints, a historic long-range breakaway, reduced GC and phenomenal climbing. Most importantly, the winner was not decided until the final stage. A stark contrast to last year\u2019s edition, in which the winner was effectively decided on a single climb.<\/p>\n

Though her team revealed she had to drop out due to illness,<\/a> the fate of that 2025 victor \u2014 Pauline Ferrand-Prevot \u2014 exemplifies how the race has changed. The Frenchwoman was not able to make it to her preferred mountain stage in contention due to the time losses she sustained on the reintroduced individual time trial and the hilly stage five.<\/p>\n

Put simply, it was not enough to be just a good climber or a puncheur for the general classification of this race. The route had more meters of elevation than last year\u2019s in the same number of days of racing \u2014 1,175km with 18,795m vertical gain \u2014 making the hilly days harder and scooping many more riders into contention.<\/p>\n

The individual time trial was also a key aspect of this, creating time gaps the favorites were forced to react to.<\/p>\n

Heading into the final stage, there was nothing off the table, hearts were in mouths all day. And that\u2019s how it should be.<\/p>\n

Provisional overall standings:
\nDemi Vollering (FDJ United-Suez)
\nKatarzyna Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon\/SRAM) + 1 minute 18 seconds
\nElisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team L\u2019Imad) + 4:29
\nAntonia Niedermaier (Canyon\/SRAM) +5:10
\nPaula Blasi (USA Team L\u2019Imad) +6\u203313
\nStage 9 Top 5:
\nDemi Vollering (FDJ United-Suez), two hours, 44 minutes and 43 seconds
\nPaula Blasi (UAE Team L\u2019Imad) + 1:04
\nKasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon\/SRAM), same time
\nNiamh Fisher-Black (Lidl-Trek), same time
\nAntonia Niedermaier (Canyon\/SRAM) +1:06<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Demi Vollering won the 2026 Tour de France Femmes after a sensational solo attack on the final stage…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":63264,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1428,5,354],"class_list":["post-63263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-france","tag-cycling","tag-france","tag-olympics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63263","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=63263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63263\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63264"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}