The
Giant
Decides
The whole first week of the Tour de France Femmes pointed at Mont Ventoux, and the mountain gave its answer: Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney, alone above the treeline, winning by 1:16 over Demi Vollering and erasing a 77-second deficit in one afternoon. Marlen Reusser cracked inside the final 500 metres and lost the yellow jersey she had defended for days; the Pole now leads Vollering by 15 seconds with two stages to race. "I dreamt of this," she said. It looked like it.
Le Tour Femmes
From the peloton,
this week
Étape 04Eight Up Front: Le Court-Pienaar Strikes in Tournon on the Eve of the Ventoux
A day of Massif Central attrition ended with eight riders clear in Tournon-sur-Rhône and one of them faster than the rest: Kim Le Court-Pienaar, who was dropped on the Col de Lalouvesc, clawed her way back, bridged to the break, attacked solo, got caught — and then won the sprint anyway. Behind, Marlen Reusser marked Demi Vollering all the way to the line, 28 seconds back, with everything still to settle on Mont Ventoux.
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Étape 05After the Pile-Up: Lemmen Wins in Karpacz as Poland's Race Turns Serious
The first mountain day of the Tour de Pologne will be remembered for the wrong reasons first: a 30-to-40-rider pile-up on a rain-slicked descent that stopped the race for nearly forty minutes and left João Almeida bleeding out of contention. When the shortened stage finally reached the hills above Karpacz, Bart Lemmen attacked alone and held off Christian Scaroni — taking the stage, the yellow jersey Jonathan Milan had worn all week, and the polka dots for good measure.
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Étape 06The Escudo Move: Gall Drops Them All and Takes the Lead in Burgos
Three days, three leaders. On the queen stage of the Vuelta a Burgos — 184 km and seven climbs — Felix Gall waited for the Puerto del Escudo, rode away from the only four riders left in the race, and descended alone to Corconte to win by eleven seconds. Oscar Onley's day in the jersey is over; the Austrian now leads Ciccone by six seconds with the wall of Lagunas de Neila still to come.
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Étape 07The Brouilly Trio: Vollering Wins the Sprint, Reusser Keeps the Jersey
The Beaujolais delivered exactly the chaos it promised. A nineteen-rider break put Antonia Niedermaier in virtual yellow, FDJ United–SUEZ shredded the race on the penultimate climb, and on Mont Brouilly Demi Vollering went all-in — with only Marlen Reusser and Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney able to follow. Vollering took the three-up sprint in Belleville-en-Beaujolais; Reusser saved the yellow jersey by twelve seconds. Mont Ventoux now waits for both of them.
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Étape 08Three From Three: Milan Completes the Hat-Trick in Zielona Góra
Third stage, third bunch sprint, third win for Jonathan Milan. A six-man break spent 70 km pretending otherwise, a category-three climb 10 km out tried to complicate matters, and none of it changed the ending: the yellow jersey launching up the drag to Zielona Góra with his arms out before anyone else had finished sprinting. The Tour de Pologne is three days old and has yet to produce a second protagonist.
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Étape 09Out of the Ravine: Onley Beats Ciccone on Burgos' First Summit
In June, a tree on the side of a ravine saved Oscar Onley's season — maybe more. The crash cost him a dislocated shoulder and the Tour de France he'd built his year around. On Wednesday, on the first summit finish of the Vuelta a Burgos, the 23-year-old Scot beat Giulio Ciccone shoulder-to-shoulder at Valle del Sol for his first win in Netcompany–INEOS colours — and the leader's jersey with it.
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