Demi Vollering took option on the final victory in the Tour de France Women by winning alone on Saturday during the 7th and penultimate stage at the top of the Col du Tourmalet in the Pyrenees.
The Dutchwoman took the yellow jersey at the expense of her Belgian teammate Lotte Kopecky and above all distanced her main competitors in the general classification.
The leader of the SD Worx formation attacked five kilometers from the line to finally edge Poland’s Katarzyna Niewiadoma by almost two minutes.
The Dutch Annemiek van Vleuten, outgoing winner of the Grande Boucle, collapsed in the last hectometres to fail in 3rd position.
Overall, Vollering has an advantage of one minute and 50 seconds over Niewiadoma, a comfortable mattress before the 8th and final stage, a 22 kilometer time trial on a flat route in the streets of Pau. Van Vleuten is relegated to almost two and a half minutes.
In the thick fog of the Tourmalet, the roof of the Tour this year (2110 m), the South African Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio took 4th place slightly ahead of the Frenchwoman Juliette Labous who rose from 10th to 6th place overall.
Transcended by her yellow jersey, Lotte Kopecky finished 6th in an epic stage.
After the ascent of the Col d’Aspin (1st category) at the top of which the favorites had already isolated themselves at the head of the race, Niewiadoma started the fight by attacking downhill.
Vollering and Van Vleuten, who then looked at each other for a long time, let the Polish woman go before gradually returning from the first meters of the Tourmalet, a 17-kilometre pass outside the category.
The world number one waited the last five kilometers to place her start and spin towards a success propelling her at 26 years old towards a first coronation in a grand tour.
