Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon//SRAM Racing) won the 2024 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift by the smallest of margins. Only four seconds separated her and runner-up Demi Vollering (Team SD Worx - Protime) in the end. Niewiadoma took over the yellow jersey of the general classification leader on stage 5 and held onto it until the last finish line on top of the legendary Alpe d’Huez. It’s the first Grand Tour victory for the Polish rider, who shared her emotion with the media on Sunday evening.
You just won the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift by a historical margin! How does it feel?
Katarzyna Niewiadoma (K.N.): Four seconds… seems to be magical now. I’m super happy. To be honest, I feel like throughout my whole career there were so many times that we missed out on a victory because of something. This week was just perfect for me and my team, everything was coming our way. Despite a few crashes in the beginning of the race we were still able to stay cool and focus on our goal. In order to win big races, you need everything on your side.
Were you targeting to win a specific stage, perhaps stage 4 where you came third?
K.N.: Stage 4 was a nice combination of all those Classics, and I love this kind of racing. I love shorter punchy hills, so I was definitely targeting that stage. Of course I’m not known for being the fastest, so unfortunately I lost the sprint, but I was happy that we were able to create a gap on the others during that stage.
What was going through your head when Demi Vollering attacked the Col du Glandon today?
K.N.: It was terrible. The climb was very hard, and I felt like I was losing my legs. And then she attacked, so it wasn’t ideal. I just knew that I had to stay patient and keep my pace. On the descent I was able to refuel and to drink, and then I felt like I regained my power. I think that I maybe overlooked the importance of fuelling during such a long climb. But then I got my power back and knew that I just had to push all my best on the final ascent.
How would you feel about racing like this for two, maybe even three weeks?
K.N.: It was one of the hardest stage races I’ve ever done. We get very long stages. It’s interesting to see how women’s cycling is developing, because it’s getting faster and everyone is getting stronger. So, in some way I’m happy that I’m 30 years old, because maybe in a couple of years when it’s really hard, I'll have already retired. But I’m definitely still for the longer stage races, I think that will bring extra attention and publicity for women’s cycling, and hopefully attract more ladies to hop on a bike.
In last year’s edition, you were third overall. What changed in the last 12 months for you to be able to win now?
K.N.: I was mainly working with my coach on building fatigue resistance. As I said, the races are getting longer and stages are no longer three hours but more like four to five hours long. You just need to spend more time on the bike. We also spent a lot of time in altitude camps, just working on climbing and improving everything. So has the whole peloton. Women’s cycling is developing so fast that you cannot fall behind if you want to be winning.
You just made history by setting a new record for the closest Tour ever...
K.N.: I haven’t had enough time to let everything sink in and think about what we accomplished today, what kind of history we wrote. But it feels amazing to be at the top step, it feels really great to be rewarded for all the hard work. Not only my hard work, but the whole team’s hard work. Like I said before, you keep pushing, you keep trying so hard and things don’t necessarily go your way, like at the Olympics just two weeks ago. And then there is one week that things are perfect, and on top of all this hard work the stars also align on your side, so… I think we all wrote history this week and we’re very proud.
You won the Flèche Wallonne in April this year, did this help to build up your confidence for the Tour?
K.N.: To be honest, I think that the most decisive race for my confidence was the UCI Gravel World Championships [she won in October 2023]. That was the race I realised that if I was spending too much energy fearing my competition, I would not be able to fight for the victories. That’s when I realised that I actually can deal with it, I just need to have more faith and use my power in a better or smarter way.