Demi Vollering wins Tour de France Femmes in Nice after fraught finale at Chemin de Vinaigrier
Demi Vollering secured her second overall victory in the Tour de France Femmes in Nice on Sunday, with the final general classification still in doubt until the narrow climb of the Chemin de Vinaigrier.
The closing stage followed a weekend of controversy after Kasia Niewiadoma confronted Vollering’s 20-year-old teammate Célia Gery on the finish line on Saturday; by the time the sun set on the Promenade des Anglais the race’s camaraderie had resumed and the Dutch riders produced an aggressive, race-deciding performance for the French‑sponsored FDJ United‑Suez team.
Vollering’s 2026 campaign cited in the race report includes victories at the Giro d’Italia Women, Liège‑Bastogne‑Liège, the Tour of Flanders and Flèche Wallonne, achievements the article places alongside those of Tadej Pogacar. The piece notes that Vollering reacted strongly to the fallout from the Gery incident and described the personal impact on her young teammate.
“She got a lot of nasty messages,” Vollering said on Sunday. “It makes me very angry, especially because she’s such a young girl. We should always protect young people from these kinds of stupid actions. She had a really rough time.” Vollering added she sought a private discussion with Niewiadoma during the early kilometres: “I wanted to have a chat with Kasia because I was a bit disappointed she let all the emotions out like that,” she said. “It was good that we had a talk together. It was all good in the end.”
Niewiadoma, who won Friday’s dramatic stage on Mont Ventoux and recorded her fifth top‑three finish in the Tour de France Femmes, gave a conciliatory response after the exchange. “We’ve been competing together for years. None of us ever wants to have any sort of beef,” she said, while the report noted the Saturday outburst did not diminish the overall scale of her season.
Another decisive subplot was Marlen Reusser’s crash: the Swiss rider began the final stage in third overall, crashed at speed on the second descent of Col d’Èze, remounted in tears with her podium hopes ended, but nevertheless completed the stage.
The article contrasts the women’s race with the men’s Tour this year, observing that the men’s event was effectively settled by stage six when Pogacar won over the Col du Tourmalet. It records that Pogacar will go to Edinburgh for next year’s Grand Départ on 2 July seeking a sixth win and that he has confirmed he will ride the Vuelta a España starting in Monaco on 22 August. The report also details Jonas Vingegaard’s uncertain future after crashing out with a broken collarbone, an episode coming hours after a 2am visit by International Testing Agency drug testers, and quotes Mattias Skjelmose: “Jonas says: ‘I can’t do any more. What am I supposed to do? I produce the best I’ve ever done and he just rides away from me,’” Skjelmose told a Danish podcast. The piece adds that Pogacar rode on to Paris seemingly untroubled by his own 5am wake‑up call and quotes UCI president David Lappartient: “there will always be suspicion in cycling”.
Tour de France Femmes director Marion Rousse is quoted drawing a distinction between the two events: “When you have a Tadej Pogacar, at such a high level, you’re talking more about second place.” She told the report the women’s race retains a rare freshness, saying: “There’s a freshness, which you don’t get in men’s racing because the men are more used to it.” The article also records Pogacar’s visible support for the women’s peloton, noting he was seen roadside during Friday’s Mont Ventoux stage running alongside and cheering his partner Urška Žigart and was present again in Nice.
Rousse said sceptics have been answered by the riders’ performances and that the event continues to grow in profile. The Tour de France Femmes will hold its Grand Départ in Leeds on 30 July next year, with stage finishes scheduled in Manchester, Sheffield and London.