One of many GC winners on Saturday’s stage 1 of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift was Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon-SRAM Zondacrypto), who took time on all however one in all her key general rivals when she crossed the road in fourth. Nonetheless, that wasn’t sufficient for the defending champion, not when she felt extra was in attain.
Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike) threw a spanner within the works for her rivals when she rode off the entrance of the sector on the climb to the end, earlier than Kim Le Courtroom (AG Insurance coverage-Soudal) and teammate Marianne Vos bridged and sprinted for the victory, with Vos claiming the stage and first yellow of the race.
“[Anna] van der Breggen tried to shut the hole however pulled off abruptly, so I used to be like, ‘Ah shit, no person needs to do it’. It was nearly too late to actually react,” stated Niewiadoma-Phinney. “I used to be then ready for a sprinter to start out sprinting, however that by no means occurred.”
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If Niewiadoma had had an opportunity to look again, she would have seen a subject behind that was fully break up aside, with nobody in a position to shut the hole. Niewiadoma’s response, late because it was, put her in fourth, crossing the road with the identical time because the main three however lacking out on the time bonuses.
That meant the Canyon-SRAM Zondacrypto rider fell 4 seconds in arrears to key general rival Ferrand-Prévot however gained on all of the others.
The 2023 winner, Demi Vollering (FDJ-Suez), was the perfect of the remainder, coming fifth at three seconds again, whereas Van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) was 5 seconds in arrears after which Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix-Deceuninck) and Niamh Fisher-Black (Lidl-Trek) have been amongst a bunch at 9 seconds behind Niewiadoma-Phinney.
“I felt good, however I am simply form of aggravated in some methods at the way it ended up,” she stated straight after the stage. “I really feel like if we had possibly a special strategy, we may have gotten higher outcomes.”
Regardless of the general features, it’s clearly troublesome to observe a possible stage win slip away, significantly given Niewiadoma-Phinney has been shut so typically.
She has received the race general and been on the GC podium of each version for the reason that ladies’s occasion was reintroduced in 2022 and, whereas she has made the stage podium 4 instances, a stage win has escaped her.
When requested earlier than the racing began if she had to decide on between a podium and a stage win, Niewiadoma-Phinney stated, “I might say that I would favor to win a stage on the Col de Madeleine after which put myself within the correct place on GC.”
And there’s no doubting that Niewiadoma-Phinney sees that ‘correct place’ as as soon as once more taking the yellow jersey on the finish of the race.
“I consider that my likelihood is very excessive,” stated Niewiadoma-Phinney. “I received this race already and I need to win it once more.”
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