The greatest drama in history brought tears of both joy and sorrow. He decided the fall, unfair transfer and disputes in the team – Sport.cz

Vollering pulled off a spectacular finish on Sunday’s final stage, finishing on the famous Alpe d’Huez. She attacked fifty kilometers long before the finish line and was able to tear away the struggling Pole. She built up to a 90-second lead, but froze at the end, while the person who had the yellow jersey was upset.

Although the 27-year-old Dutch woman won the stage, she calmly waited to see who her opponent, who was two years older, would finish with. Niewiadomá led it with the necessary deficit of 61 seconds.

In the end, she defended the yellow jersey by just four seconds! This is the smallest difference in the history of all Grand Tours, women and men. And the third Rooijakkersová, another Dutchman, lost just ten seconds. “It’s really magical,” Polka admitted.

“I feel amazing. The whole stage was an emotional roller coaster. When Demi steamed me, I suffered physically and mentally. But I stayed patient, I got my batteries back and I gave my best,” said a happy Niewiadomá, who was celebrating the biggest success of her career.

On the other hand, only second place remained for Vollering. “It’s very bitter. I feel empty. I fought, but it was not enough,” one of the biggest stars of women’s cycling was saddened at the press conference, where tears woke up in her eyes again.

At the eight-day Tour de France Femmes, she may be the strongest woman in the peloton, but cycling isn’t just about performance, it also includes falls. Vollering encountered an unpleasant carom in the 5th stage, when she lost almost two minutes and lost the yellow jersey. “It’s hard not to win because of a fall, but that’s part of cycling too,” she said apologetically.

However, her SD Worx-Protime team can throw ashes on her head. The Dutch team could not cope with the chaos after the big crash on Thursday, and Vollering in yellow had to bear most of the loss himself.

It turned out how difficult it is to attack multiple targets and have too many ropes in one dump. In the meantime, Hungarian Blanka Vasová was aiming for the podium lead, while Lorena Wiebesová had the same goal.

When her partner and her team fell six kilometers before the finish line, she turned around, but did not wait for the leader. “When I looked back, I saw something yellow on the ground,” she said listlessly. “We shouldn’t stress too much about it. Demi will be able to make up for the loss in the mountains,” said Wiebesová on Thursday.

Even the Dutch stable itself could not ride the rider well. According to speculation throughout the race, he did not give such support to Vollering as the Pijnacker native is set to leave after the season to compete in the French team FDJ-Suez, which angered the management of the current team.

However, even the champion Niewiadomá did not carry after that. She did not follow, like the others, the unwritten rule that she does not attack if there is a fall or technical problems with the yellow jersey, and she finished second in the stage. In the eyes of some fans, she is not exactly a moral winner of the Tour de France.

But no one will take away the impact of her life. And that magical four second difference will forever be recorded as one of the most impressive cycling races in history.