Niewiadoma wins Tour de France after Alpe d'Huez battle for the ages | Video

Katarzyna Niewiadoma cracked on the Col du Glandon, but she fought back with a ride that will define her career no matter what comes in the future (Photo: Thomas Maheux)

Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM Racing) has won the Tour de France, by just four seconds, from Demi Vollering (Team SD Worx-Protime), after a stage for the ages on Alpe d'Huez.

Vollering, who lost yellow on stage 5 due to a crash, went for broke today; attacking the select group on the penultimate climb with 50km to go. And once she pulled ahead, Niewiadoma was on the ropes.

However, the Polish rider put in the battling performance of her life - one that will definite her for the rest of her days - and simply refused to take no for an answer today. She rode flat out all the way to the line, bringing the gap down to Vollering and Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix-Deceuninck) by enough to emerge the outright winner.

The two leaders - both of who overtook Niewiadoma in the virtual classification today as their gap reached almost 1:30 at one point. Indeed, it was Rooijakkers who started the day ahead of Vollering and so, on paper at least, she represented more of a danger to the yellow jersey.

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Niewiadoma had started the stage some 1:13 up on 31-year-old Rooijakkers, with Vollering just one furter place back in the general classification, in 8th at 1:15.

And when Vollering took flight on the Col du Glandon, then teaming up with Rooijakkers at the head of the race, Niewiadoma's race lead was always at risk. But when the riders moved onto the final climb, up the famed Alpe d'Huez, Niewiadoma showed great character, just above closing the gap to the leaders and winning the race.

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In the end, though Rooijakkers tried to attack in the closing stages, Vollering was able to hold her and then easily beat her at the finish; powering away from her rival by four seconds to win the stage and take the 10-second time bonus.

Vollering celebrated wildly on crossing the line, perhaps thinking she had also done enough to win the race overall. However, when Niewiadoma crossed the line in 4th, at 1:01, she had just held off Vollering in the overall by four seconds, with Rooijakkers in 3rd at 10 seconds.

More to come.

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