Tour de France Femmes 2026: Kasia Niewiadoma wins on Mont Ventoux and takes yellow – live

The new race leader speaking to TNT: “As we started to climb Mont Ventoux we looked right and I saw my parents – they paid me a surprise visit! I saw my dad crying and I just said I need to make them proud. So this victory goes to my family, my friends, my team, to my husband Taylor, to my coach and to my team managers, who have to deal with my complaining.

“I didn’t chase the victory for the sake of winning, I chased it for the sake of this beautiful feeling. I came here and road Mont Ventoux with my friends and my husband. We rode it three times and had fun, we sprinted, we did effort and it was just about this amazing feeling from being around here. From that moment I wanted to have that feeling coming [to this stage] as well. You know, the pure joy of riding and feeling like a kid, that’s the thing about bike riding, we can anywhere we want and enjoy every pedal stroke.

“My idea was to make it to 6km to go on my own because then I knew with the wind that we had today that if somebody is chasing behind they will try to stay on the wheel as much as possible. When I reached [6km to go], of course it wasn’t nice for me because it was a lot of headwind but I knew in the back they would just play the game.”

The Canyon/Sram rider overhauled both Reusser and Vollering, she now leads by 15secs on GC. Vollering is now 24secs ahead of Reusser but further off the maillot jaune than she started the day.

She cross the line in 4hrs 22mins and 53secs. Vollering has attacked Reusser behind, drama!

A reminder of the yellow jersey standings ahead of today’s stage, the gap from Vollering to Reusser in the maillot jaune is just 12 seconds.

1 Marlen Reusser (Movistar) 19hrs 43mins 34secs\n 2 Demi Vollering (FDJ United-Suez) +12secs\n 3 Katarzyna Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon/Sram) +1min 17secs\n 4 Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team L’Imad) +2min 28secs\n 5 Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon/Sram) +2min 40secs

146.8km to go Race radio pipes up to tell me the peloton is officially racing and we’re on the road to Mont Ventoux. Sadly, the great Anna Van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) is a non-starter today, as are Katrine Aalerud (Uno-X Mobility) and Mayenne-Monbana-My Pie’s Kiara Lylyk.

Next stop kilometre zero (in 11.4km).

When the route planners drew up this year’s Tour de France Femmes they were probably hoping that the race’s first ever ascent of Mont Ventoux for the ‘queen stage’ would begin with this exact race scenario, where a group of general classification riders are chasing a time-trial specialist in the yellow jersey. They might have hoped defending champion and home favourite, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, was among those GC contenders, but you can’t have everything. What we do have is Demi Vollering breathing down the neck of GC leader Marlen Reusser and others needing to make back minutes on a climb that punishing as it is famous. We should see some furious attacking on the slopes.

Featuring Ventoux in this year’s Tour is another indicator of its growing stature. Women’s races have featured the climb before but this its first apeparance in the road book of what is quickly becoming the pinnacle of calendar. Sadly the wildfires have reduced the numbers of spectators allowed across the length of the route, but whoever crosses the line first will have a famous victory to add to their palmares.

The ascent up the ‘Bald Mountain’ comes after three categorised climbs earlier in the 146.6km route. In addition to the length and steepness of Ventoux, the exposure to the heat is another factor the riders will have to deal with. There is limited tree cover, so strategy and team support will be vital. All expect Vollering to claim the day, but the variables make it a fascinating prospect where no one can be sure of the outcome.

Key events

• 2h agoNiewiadoma-Phinney speaks!
• 2h agoNiewiadoma-Phinney confirmed in yellow!
• 2h agoNiewiadoma-Phinney takes stage seven and the yellow jersey too
• 6h agoGC standings
• 7h agoKilometre zero
• 7h agoWe're rolling out...
• 8h agoPreamble

Here’s Jeremy Whittle’s report. And with that, farewell.

That’s it from me, what a stage! Jeremy Whittle’s race report from Mont Ventoux will be dropped in here and up on the site later. I’ll be back for stage eight tomorrow.Thanks for following along.

Niewiadoma-Phinney speaks!

The new race leader speaking to TNT: “As we started to climb Mont Ventoux we looked right and I saw my parents – they paid me a surprise visit! I saw my dad crying and I just said I need to make them proud. So this victory goes to my family, my friends, my team, to my husband Taylor, to my coach and to my team managers, who have to deal with my complaining.

“I didn’t chase the victory for the sake of winning, I chased it for the sake of this beautiful feeling. I came here and road Mont Ventoux with my friends and my husband. We rode it three times and had fun, we sprinted, we did effort and it was just about this amazing feeling from being around here. From that moment I wanted to have that feeling coming [to this stage] as well. You know, the pure joy of riding and feeling like a kid, that’s the thing about bike riding, we can anywhere we want and enjoy every pedal stroke.

“My idea was to make it to 6km to go on my own because then I knew with the wind that we had today that if somebody is chasing behind they will try to stay on the wheel as much as possible. When I reached [6km to go], of course it wasn’t nice for me because it was a lot of headwind but I knew in the back they would just play the game.”

Here’s the top five in the GC standings after stage seven:

1. Katarzyna Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon/Sram) 24h 7mins 34secs 2. Demi Vollering (FDJ United-Suez) +15secs 3. Marlen Reusser (Movistar) +39secs 4. Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team L’Imad) +2mins 59secs 5. Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon/Sram) +3min 21secs

Niewiadoma-Phinney confirmed in yellow!

The Canyon/Sram rider overhauled both Reusser and Vollering, she now leads by 15secs on GC. Vollering is now 24secs ahead of Reusser but further off the maillot jaune than she started the day.

Vollering didn’t do enough to steal yellow but is up to second as she crosses 1min 16secs behind. Longo Borghini took the final bonus seconds by passing Reusser in the final 100m.

Niewiadoma-Phinney takes stage seven and the yellow jersey too

She cross the line in 4hrs 22mins and 53secs. Vollering has attacked Reusser behind, drama!

Kasia Niewiadoma celebrates on top of Mont Ventoux after winning stage seven. Photograph: Tim de Waele/Getty Images

300m to go Still Niewiadoma-Phinney is taking time. She has nearly 1min 50secs.

700m to go Niewiadoma-Phinney gets out of the saddle to push for the line. Not let-up, every second could be vital in deciding the GC come the end of this race.

1km to go Niewiadoma-Phinney goes under the flamme rouge with the wind whipping and the gradient at 10%. Just tapping it out, incredible from the Polish rider.

1.4km to go Maybe not, the gap is holding between the second and third groups on the road.

2km to go Vollering and Reusser are set to be caught.

2.5km to go Niewiadoma-Phinney is still pulling away. Her gap is now 1min 45secs, the stage is surely hers and probably the yellow jersey too.

3km to go Vollering and Reusser might get caught by the group of Niedermaier and Longo Borghini.

3.6km to go The time gap is still going out as Vollering and Reusser ride into the headwind.

4km to go Niewiadoma-Phinney now is in the virtual yellow, probably with a small buffer thanks to the time bonus for winning the stage. When will Vollering attack again?

4.8km to go Behind Niewiadoma-Phinney, Vollering and Reusser are still together.

5.4km to go Niewiadoma-Phinney is now second on the virtual podium and just five seconds from the lead.

6km to go Niewiadoma-Phinney is still pushing. This is an uphill time trial now, she nearly has a minute lead.

7km to go The gap is now 50secs, meaning that Vollering’s place on the podium is coming under threat too.

8km to go Niewiadoma-Phinney started the day 1min 17secs down on Reusser and she’s put in another effort to get a lead of 30secs. Can she stretch this out ober the final 8km? Incredible ride.

8.4km to go Vollering isn’t going to hang around waiting to see if Reusser will work to bring back Niewiadoma-Phinney. The Dutch rider puts in a big pull and flicks her elbow, Reusser does a short turn and drops back. Niewiadoma-Phinney still has a six-second lead.

9km to go Niewiadoma-Phinney has gone off on her own and got 15secs on Vollering and Reusser.

10km to go Antonia Niedermaier and Elisa Longo Borghini are in the group behind, about 30 secs down.

11km to go Ruegg’s shift is up and she drops off. Here comes Vollering, that’s her first attack on the steep hairpin and she’s blown away the hangers on. The lead group is now down to Reusser and Katarzyna Niewiadoma-Phinney.

12km to go Ruegg is still going on the front, but Reusser looks comfortable. The maillot jaune is just sitting in the wheels.

12.8km to go Noemi Ruegg is putting on the power to give her EF Education-Oatly teammate Cedrine Kerbaol a chance to attack Reusser.

13.8km to go French national champion Celia Gery comes to the front to do her turn for Vollering. The lead group is starting to string out.

14.5km to go All of Reusser’s teammates have gone and we’re now down to just 14 riders at the front of the race. The world champion Magdalene Vallieres Mill had attempted a little attack but has now gone straight through the back.

15.7km to go We’re on the classified part of the climb, this averages 8.8% until the finish now but often steeper. The gradient has already filtered out a number of the riders, including defending champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot.

17.5km to go The lead group is down to 60 riders. Reusser has lost two teammates but still has a couple with her.

19.5km to go Latimier burned out but Ruby Roseman-Gannon is still carrying the fight. The Liv-AlUla-Jayco rider is all alone out front now, but not for long. The peloton is coming quickly.

20km to go Clemence Latimier (Ma Petite Entreprise) just put in a huge burst to try and go clear of the break. That’s a lot of effort before 20km of climbing.

Marlen Reusser, centre, and the peloton head for Ventoux. Photograph: Philippe Magoni/AP

22km to go Reusser’s Movistar team are all with her at the front of the peloton as they chase down the break. It’s about 20secs to the front of the race now.

28km to go The peloton has cut the gap by more than 30secs in nine kilometres. The riders are currently on a little false flat before we ramp up sharply. When will this kick off? Very much the calm before the storm.

34km to go The break is down to nine riders but when the GC attacks come I can’t see them hanging on for the win.

Fans gather on top of Mont Ventoux before the finish to stage seven. Photograph: Manon Cruz/Reuters

37km to go No more mountains points for Puck as the breakaway go over the summit of the Col de Suzette. The lead group has an advantage of 1min 10secs on the peloton. We’re on a little downhill now before we go start going up Ventoux.

42km to go Von Berswordt and Vos are now OFFICIALLY back in the peloton. Vos has actually gone through the back of the bunch on this climb up Col de Suzette.

46km to go The breakaway has swept up the points at the intermediate sprint, none of those riders are near the top of those standings, so little change in the race for the green jersey. Lorena Wiebes, who is leading in the points classification, did make sure to get the three points available as the 14th rider to cross the line.

53km to go That’s the issue with relying on race radio. It said Vos and Von Berswordt were back in the pack, they’re not, but they are 90secs behind the breakaway.

55km to go Rant over. The breakaway has a lead of 2mins 40secs and growing. The intermedite sprint is coming up in six kilometres, then after that it’s basically all climbing to the finish.

The breakaway pass the picturesque village of Séguret. Photograph: Alex Broadway/Getty Images

58km to go TNT broadcast starts at 2.15pm BST, we get five minutes of buildup and then an ad break. We join the live pictures ten minutes later and having missed more than two hours of racing. Not good enough.

61km to go Vos has knocked it on the head and returned to the peloton, it looks like Von Berswordt has now given up the ghost too.

65km to go Sophie von Berswordt and Vos are 45secs behind the breakaway group. They might not crack this gap. How long do the pursue?

70km to go We may finally have a breakaway! A group to ten riders has gone up the road, with three more, including Marianne Vos, chasing them. None of the 13 are in GC contention and the gap is growing, currently it’s hovering around 35secs.

97km to go Nosková is one of four dropped riders a minute behind the peloton.

105km to go Three more points for Pieterse at the top of Col du Colombier. Sara Casasola (Fenix-Premier Tech) takes second and is up to third in the mountains standings.

Puck Pieterse and the peloton in action. Photograph: Alex Broadway/Getty Images

“Good afternoon,” emails in David Alderton. “This Tour has been brilliant. Superb racing, wonderfully balanced, and a really entertaining route. I can’t enthuse enough about it!. There needs to be more TV coverage, and there’s some very strong advocates for that making robust cases.

“Today’s stage looks brutal, even before the final climb, and there could be a good chance for a successful break today. A decent headstart up the hill could be vital.

“A month ago I ran in a half marathon up Ventoux from Bedoin. It’s an absolutely unrelentingly gruelling experience. From the village to the forest, it’s very sunny, hot, and steep. Through the forest it’s shaded, hot and very steep. Once through the treeline, it slacked off slightly until the last kilometre which is best described as a really cruel joke as it ramps up again. The thought of racing for positions up it makes my blood run cold, especially after the lead into it the riders have.”

Agree wholeheartedly, David. The word is ASO are not providing pictures so even if TNT wanted to broadcast the early parts of the stage it couldn’t. This has to be addressed going forward. Every chance there’s an attack before we get any coverage today, which is a scandal.

114km to go Korevaar’s attack couldn’t hold. The peloton is back together as the road starts veering upward before we hit the category three climb up the Colombier.

122km to go We are seeing the first attacks of substance on the flat section to Col du Colombier. Jeanne Korevaar (Liv-AlUla-Jayco) has burst clear of the peloton and got herself a lead of about 15secs.

133km to go Puck Pieterse extends her lead in the polkadot jersey standings, taking the first five points on offer today. The Dutch rider is on 52 points, well clear of second-place Nikola Nosková who has 21 and didn’t add any on Col de la Grande Limite.

GC standings

A reminder of the yellow jersey standings ahead of today’s stage, the gap from Vollering to Reusser in the maillot jaune is just 12 seconds.

1 Marlen Reusser (Movistar) 19hrs 43mins 34secs 2 Demi Vollering (FDJ United-Suez) +12secs 3 Katarzyna Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon/Sram) +1min 17secs 4 Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team L’Imad) +2min 28secs 5 Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon/Sram) +2min 40secs

140km to go The peloton is still all together at the foot of the first categorised climb. That will surely change as we start heading up the Col de la Grande Limite.

Kilometre zero

146.8km to go Race radio pipes up to tell me the peloton is officially racing and we’re on the road to Mont Ventoux. Sadly, the great Anna Van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) is a non-starter today, as are Katrine Aalerud (Uno-X Mobility) and Mayenne-Monbana-My Pie’s Kiara Lylyk.

We're rolling out...

Next stop kilometre zero (in 11.4km).

We’re about ten minutes out from the neutralised start in La Voulte-sur-Rhône. I’ll be tracking the race for the first couple of hours before the TV coverage starts and providing key updates. In the meantime, I’d love to hear from you with your thoughts on the race or anything else women’s cycling. The email link is at the top of the page.

Here’s the visualisation of today’s stage. Punishing from the start:

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Preamble

When the route planners drew up this year’s Tour de France Femmes they were probably hoping that the race’s first ever ascent of Mont Ventoux for the ‘queen stage’ would begin with this exact race scenario, where a group of general classification riders are chasing a time-trial specialist in the yellow jersey. They might have hoped defending champion and home favourite, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, was among those GC contenders, but you can’t have everything. What we do have is Demi Vollering breathing down the neck of GC leader Marlen Reusser and others needing to make back minutes on a climb that punishing as it is famous. We should see some furious attacking on the slopes.

Featuring Ventoux in this year’s Tour is another indicator of its growing stature. Women’s races have featured the climb before but this its first apeparance in the road book of what is quickly becoming the pinnacle of calendar. Sadly the wildfires have reduced the numbers of spectators allowed across the length of the route, but whoever crosses the line first will have a famous victory to add to their palmares.

The ascent up the ‘Bald Mountain’ comes after three categorised climbs earlier in the 146.6km route. In addition to the length and steepness of Ventoux, the exposure to the heat is another factor the riders will have to deal with. There is limited tree cover, so strategy and team support will be vital. All expect Vollering to claim the day, but the variables make it a fascinating prospect where no one can be sure of the outcome.