NICE, France – The 2024 Women’s Tour de France delivered another chapter of high-stakes cycling drama on Saturday, as Dutch star Demi Vollering pulled off a spectacular late-stage attack to claim victory on the eighth leg and wrestle the overall race lead away from Katarzyna Niewiadoma-Phinney heading into Sunday’s decisive final stage. The 2023 race champion left her closest title rivals in her wake on the day’s final categorized climb, surging clear with six kilometers remaining to secure a result she had visualized only hours before the start of the race.
The 172-kilometer route from Sisteron to the Mediterranean coastal city of Nice was designed on paper to favor sprinters, with mostly flat terrain broken up by just four short, low-elevation climbs. That rolling profile added an element of uncertainty, however, as general classification contenders sought to conserve energy for the final day’s challenging course, opening the door for early breakaways. Early in the stage, French rider Maeva Squiban and Dutch competitor Loes Adegeest managed to pull away from the peloton and build a significant gap, holding off the main chase group for most of the day.
The breakaway bid hit trouble when Squiban crashed on a downhill turn, sliding off her bike and landing hard on her left side. The incident left her with cuts and scrapes, and she screamed in pain as a motorbike medic patched up her arm while she continued riding. Despite the injury, Squiban pushed on to finish the stage, while Adegeest was reeled back in by the peloton with less than nine kilometers left to race.
In the wake of the catch, the stage’s climax unfolded on the day’s final climb, when Vollering made her decisive move. The Dutchwoman upped her pace, putting pressure on Niewiadoma-Phinney – who had claimed the yellow jersey just one day prior with a stunning solo victory up Mont Ventoux – who eventually cracked under the intensity. Once Vollering surged clear, neither Niewiadoma-Phinney nor Italy’s Elisa Longo Borghini, a former Giro d’Italia winner, could close the gap as the leader rode the iconic Promenade des Anglais to the finish line.
Crossing the line, Vollering raised her arms in triumph before collapsing on the ground, gasping for breath to recover from her all-out effort. Speaking to reporters after the stage, she opened up about the mental and physical toll of her victory, revealing she had predicted the turnaround that morning. “It’s funny but only this morning I saw myself taking the yellow jersey,” Vollering said. “I thought it might come true, that maybe that’s the way things should be. During the day, I tried to remind myself I could do it.” She added, “I was in so much pain, I can hardly describe it, but I made it happen. This goes to prove that if you really believe in something, if you dream big, it doesn’t matter how much risk you take or how much pain you have to go through.”
Longo Borghini crossed the finish line second, with Niewiadoma-Phinney taking third, both riders 17 seconds behind the stage winner. The result gives Vollering an 8-second overall lead over Niewiadoma-Phinney heading into the final stage, and also cements a historic milestone for the Dutch star: she has now won all three of women’s cycling Grand Tours in the same calendar year, taking the Giro d’Italia earlier in 2024 to complete the rare treble.
Saturday’s stage was not without off-the-road news, as defending champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévôt withdrew from the race shortly before the start after reporting feeling unwell. The French rider, who is also the 2024 Paris Olympic gold medalist in mountain biking, pulled out following consultation with medical staff from her Visma-Lease a Bike team, who announced the decision on social media platform X. Ferrand-Prévôt made headlines last year when she won the Women’s Tour de France on her debut, but struggled through the 2024 edition and sat 14th overall before her withdrawal.
All eyes now turn to Sunday’s ninth and final stage, which will see riders tackle four testing climbs up Col d’Èze, a hilltop route that overlooks the tiny Principality of Monaco. The parcours sets up a tense showdown for the overall title, with a history that adds extra drama: two years ago, Niewiadoma-Phinney beat Vollering on a final-day mountain stage to claim the overall victory by a razor-thin 4-second margin. Vollering is well aware of the stakes ahead of the decisive leg. “Tomorrow’s course is going to be super hard,” she said. “We know it from the beginning of the Tour.”