Demi Vollering may have slipped to fourth overall after stage 6 of the Tour de France Femmes, but there was little sign of concern from the Dutch climber as the race edges towards its decisive Alpine showdown.
Finishing safely in the front group on the stage into Ambert, the FDJ-Suez leader looked relaxed post-race, smiling with fans and chatting to locals from the roadside. Despite conceding her podium spot to Kasia Niewiadoma after a sprint for bonus seconds, Vollering described the day as one where the team’s strategy worked to perfection.
“We didn’t have to do anything, while AG [Insurance-Soudal] lost all their domestiques,” she said. “Our plan was to send Elise [Chabbey], or at least some of our team’s riders, ahead. That way, we could put pressure on the other teams to chase.”
Photo Credit: A.S.O./Thomas MaheuxWhile UAE Team ADQ’s Maeva Squiban went on the attack, it was current race leader Kim Le Court-Pienaar who took on the workload, hoping to repeat her bonus-second haul from the day before. She claimed four more to extend her overall advantage, but Vollering was unfazed.
“I mean, in the end, you try to grab what you can grab,” she said. “But, yeah, Kim, I mean, she’s so explosive, so I could not hold the wheel yesterday and today. I didn’t want to totally kill myself, because the Tour is still long.
“If every time you go all out for these bonuses, you can maybe feel it a bit towards the end.”
Those bonus seconds are already proving decisive. Le Court now leads by 25 seconds over Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, and sits 31 seconds ahead of Vollering, a gap built almost entirely on intermediate sprints and stage placings. Without her 34 bonus seconds, she would be fourth overall.
Photo Credit: A.S.O./Thomas Maheux“I think the micro-accelerations can add up,” Le Court said, “but the seconds at the bonus sprints can also add up… For me it’s important to gain as many seconds as possible, because I don’t know how I’ll do in the big mountain stages.”
With Chambéry on Friday and a high-mountain finale over the weekend, the real GC sorting is yet to come. Vollering is confident that the terrain will finally begin to separate the contenders.
“Everybody looks very good uphill, so I’m looking forward to the coming days to see what we can do in these kinds of finishes,” she said.
Photo Credit: A.S.O./Pauline BalletBut she’ll need to navigate a packed top five that also includes the ever-consistent Niewiadoma and Anna van der Breggen, who continues to build into form just six months into her return from retirement. Ferrand-Prévot, sitting second overall, remains untested in the climbs but has yet to show any sign of weakness.
As for Le Court, the Mauritian remains quietly defiant in yellow. “I felt really, really good, better than I really expected. So no, no signs of weaknesses on my side so far,” she said.
The stage is set for a showdown in the Alps. The bonus seconds have had their say. Now it’s time for the climbs to speak.
