It took one minute and one second for Kasia Niewiadoma to break Demi Vollering ’s heart in the nail-biting grand finale of the 2024 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, with the Polish rider crossing the line just in time to hold onto the yellow jersey and force Vollering to think of all the what ifs. Alpe d’Huez calls itself une montagne d’émotions - the mountain of emotions - and for Vollering it was disappointment, distraughtness and despondence that were the overwhelming feelings she experienced when the overall defeat dawned on her. The emotions flooded out for both riders but cycling’s beautiful and cruel reality once against reared its head as one rider’s elation juxtaposed with another’s complete misery - Vollering experiencing the latter having lost the race by just four seconds, the narrowest margin of any Tour de France, men’s or women’s.
After a crash lost her the jersey and 1:47 on her rival on stage 5, a photo finish loss saw her miss out on four bonus seconds and a late surge saw her only reduce the deficit to Niewiadoma by four seconds on yesterday’s finale up Le Grand-Bornand, the what ifs could only lead Vollering to tears at the finish. “At this moment not so good. First of all, I feel really empty after today’s effort but of course, also I’m a bit disappointed that I couldn’t win the yellow jersey by just four seconds, that’s a bit sour for me at the moment,’ said Vollering in an emotional winner’s press conference.
“The da.