In pursuit of the yellow jersey, Kasia Niewiadoma nonetheless has all eyes on Demi Vollering (SD Worx-Protime) on the midway level of the Tour de France Femmes, even with Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck) successful the three-up dash into Liège and ending stage 4 between her and the defending champion within the high three total.
The Polish rider wasn’t conscious Pieterse had received as she dried off from a soaking moist stage, warmed down and spoke to reporters together with Cyclingnews, however she was fast to not underestimate the multi-discipline star when informed that she had bested Vollering in a photograph end.
“Oh, she received? She owes me one, I did a great lead-out for her,” joked the Canyon-SRAM rider. “I imply, in fact, we all know that she’s a very gifted rider. I do know her from Classics racing,” stated Niewiadoma, earlier than admitting that she thinks the incoming excessive mountains may very well be Pieterse’s undoing within the common classification.
“I’ve by no means seen her racing on the longer climbs, so perhaps as a result of she is a mountain biker then she will likely be lacking a bit extra endurance than what we roadies have. After all, I take her under consideration as a result of she’s very gifted and powerful.
“However I nonetheless focus primarily on beating Demi [Vollering].”
Niewiadoma has been adamant about her aim of not settling for the rostrum, a feat she’s managed within the earlier and solely two editions of the Tour de France Femmes. As a substitute, she’s chasing absolutely for yellow, with a laser give attention to the defending champion Vollering. Nevertheless, she knew she had little likelihood within the dash à trois ultimate after the trio proved strongest over the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons with 13km to go.
“I believe the ultimate 10kms, we had been all working equally so it was very nice that Demi [Vollering[ and Puck [Pieterse] had been dedicated to offer the identical quantity of labor,” stated Niewiadoma.
“As we had been approaching the ultimate kilometres, I knew that Demi was the quickest so if I wished to win, it was simply from an early assault and I do know that in Liège-Bastogne-Liège, an assault virtually paid off so I had comparable ideas in thoughts.”
In April on the one-day race, Niewiadoma made her transfer with 1.2km to exit of a bigger group and was shortly shut down by Elisa Longo Borghini, ultimately ending up fifth. At this time she performed the ultimate in addition to she may, launching from the again of the trio with the shock component and solely being handed by Pieterse and Vollering inside the ultimate 200m.
“I simply waited till Demi [Vollering] was within the entrance in order that it will be more durable to react and I went for it. Ultimately, I acquired caught, I don’t know, 150 metres to go – so this time a bit nearer than Liège so hopefully, subsequent time it really works out,” stated Niewiadoma.
“The one factor you are able to do within the final metres is do your finest, go all out. You simply want that second of hesitation from others. In my thoughts I used to be like ‘I simply must do the toughest 1k and see what occurs’.”
And whereas she misplaced out on victory, Niewiadoma did make sturdy GC features on all different rivals, leaping from forty sixth to 3rd total simply 34 seconds down on Vollering – primarily as a result of stage 3 time trial – and with a strong buffer of twenty-two and 47 seconds respectively over GC rivals Juliette Labous (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) and Evita Muzic (FDJ-Suez).
“To be trustworthy, it’s just the start of the Tour. I felt good as we speak, so it’s good understanding that you just approached a tough stage race in good condition,” stated the Polish rider. “If we completed on the climb and I misplaced that may be a bit extra hurtful than dropping the dash. I really feel like I’m used to dropping sprints in some methods,” she laughed.
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