His 2023 season was already successful, this success turns it into a triumph. Sunday in Pau, the Dutch Demi Vollering won the Tour de France Women for the first time at the end of the 8e and last stage, a 22 kilometer time trial, which went to the Swiss Marlen Reusser (22 kilometers in 29 min 15 s, at more than 46 km / h on average).
Vollering, 26, succeeds her compatriot Annemiek van Vleuten, who reigned for several seasons in women’s cycling. The wearer of the yellow jersey finished 2e of this last step. “Of course, I worked a lot to achieve this result, explained the Dutchwoman, who had recognized six of the eight stages of the Tour in recent months. But this success is the result of a whole, of a good personal balance, thanks in particular to a great entourage. »
For his team, SD Worx, the success is total this Sunday, because Marlen Reusser is part of it, just like the Belgian Lotte Kopecky. The latter, yellow jersey for six days, finally wins the green of the points classification and climbs, for a few tenths of a second, to 2e place in the final general classification.
Poland’s Katarzyna Niewiadoma, 2e at the start of the last stage, move back one place and climb to the last step of the podium, wearing the Tour’s best climber’s jersey on her shoulders.
On the French side, Juliette Labous, 6e of Sunday’s time trial, finished in 5e position in the general classification. Second in the last Giro, she finished 4e of the first Tour de France Women, in 2022. The young Cédrine Kerbaol, 12e of the general, leaves Pau with the white jersey of the classification of the best young person.
Passing of the torch
This success in the Tour is already the fifteenth victory in 2023 for Vollering, world number 1 who only lacked a victory in a Grand Tour. The Dutch took the yellow jersey on Saturday at the top of the Tourmalet, at the end of the queen stage. The former speed skater had already dominated the spring of the classics, signing the Ardennes hat-trick Flèche wallonne, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Amstel Gold Race.
“Very tense” during the first days of racing, Vollering had been penalized 20 seconds by the jury for an extended shelter behind her team car during the 5e stage. A sanction (accompanied by the exclusion of its sports director) that several competitors had found rather lenient while the runner – “who had put his life in danger”, according to the director of the event, Marion Rousse – had risked disqualification. Vollering escaped it, not missing the opportunity to take revenge on Van Vleuten, who had beaten her in 2022.
This Tour de France Women 2023 will remain as that of the passing of the torch between Vollering and Van Vleuten, winner of the edition of the renaissance, in 2022. The world champion, 40, who will retire at the end of the season, fails in the foot of the podium, in 4e position. The Dutchwoman, who is nevertheless world champion in the time trial, only finished 14e of the last stage, exhausted. However, his season has not been missed. Van Vleuten won the Giro and the Vuelta this year.
Vollering will be keen to confirm her performance in a year’s time. Especially since the Tour de France Women 2024 will start from the Netherlands, in Rotterdam.