Everything was set for a beautiful finale in Nice, and we indeed had one on a stage that evoked the Race to the Sun (Paris-Nice) and crowned a deserving queen. Demi Vollering (FDJ United-Suez) won the last stage of the 2026 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift to secure her Yellow Jersey, defeating her rival Katarzyna Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon//SRAM) with an attack inside the final kilometre of the last climb up the Col d’Éze. The Dutch rider thus netted her second overall victory in the Grande Boucle by 1’18” on her Polish challenger and 4’29” on Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team L’Imad), who stepped on the third spot of the podium as Marlen Reusser (Movistar Team) got dropped early on the stage and then crashed out of contention. Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon//SRAM) claimed the white jersey as best young rider after finishing 4th overall, just ahead Paula Blasi (UAE Team L'Imad). As for the rest of the standings, Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) secured the green jersey throughout the stage, while the polka dot jersey was already settled and in the hands of Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Premier Tech) and the teams classification went to UAE Team L’Imad.
122 riders took the start in the 9th and last stage of the 2026 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift as of 16:11 CEST, a finale in Nice with a course well-suited for a showdown: 99.2 kilometres consisting of four laps to a circuit that had the summit of the Col d’Èze as an apex and the Promenade des Anglais as an axis and culmination. There were four non-starters: Alice Coutinho (Mayenne Monbana My Pie), Paula Patiño (Laboral Kutxa-Fundación Euskadi), Heidi Franz (St Michel-Preference Home-Auber93) and Valentina Cavallar (SD Worx-Protime).
Reusser crashes out of the podium
The first climb to the Col d’Èze (Cat 2, km 7.7) began off the bat, and UAE Team L’Imad tried to set a high pace as soon as the flag dropped with attacks from Mavi García, Dominika Wlodarczyk or Maëva Squiban, who was first at the summit with a small gap on a peloton that was already reduced to 50 riders. Amongst those was Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime), who was third across the Intermediate Sprint in Nice (IS, km 23.5) behind Malwina Mul (Cofidis) and Paula Ostiz (Movistar Team), who at that point had a tiny advantage on the peloton. With this, the Dutch rider secured the green jersey.
Zoe Backstedt (Canyon//SRAM) took the helm in the peloton the second time the riders tackled the Col d’Èze (Cat 2, km 33.6). The British rider reduced the group down to just 11 riders before as she peeled off just after the summit: Antonia Niedermaier, Katarzyna Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon//SRAM), Juliette Berthet, Demi Vollering (FDJ United-Suez), Paula Blasi, Dominika Wlodarczyk, Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team L’Imad), Niamh Fisher-Black, Isabella Holmgren (Lidl-Trek), Cédrine Kerbaol (EF Education-Oatly) and Femke De Vries (Visma | Lease a Bike). Amongst them wasn’t Marlen Reusser (Movistar Team), who got dropped two kilometres from the summit and then crashed on the descent. The Swiss thus lost her podium chances after starting the stage 3rd overall, 1’12” in arrears of the Yellow Jersey and with 1’53” on the woman who was 4th in the standings, Longo Borghini.
Hesitation marked the third climb up the Col d’Èze (Cat 2, km 59.6) until Holmgren attacked 6.5 kilometres from the summit and went clear. Berthet then came to the fore and began setting the pace, trying to control the Canadian rider’s gap. Two kilometres from the summit, Blasi launched an attack that she abruptly put to bed as her team leader, Longo Borghini, was struggling to follow. Thus, the 10-group Yellow Jersey made it tight together to the summit, 1’10” behind race leader Holmgren.
Vollering gets the better off Niewiadoma-Phinney
Both the Yellow Jersey and the final podium spot were up for grabs in the fourth and final climb to the Col d’Èze (Cat 1, km 83.8), which this time was tackled via its steeped side, also known as the Chemin du Vinaigrier (‘the Vinegar-maker Road’). Just 8” separated Vollering and Niewiadoma-Phinney, and the latter put her teammate Niedermaier to set a fierce pace from the bottom of the climb. Just as Holmgren got caught four kilometres from the summit, the Polish rider took off with the Yellow Jersey sitting firmly on her wheel. Behind them, a five-strong group formed with Niedermaier, Blasi, Longo Borghini, Holmgren and Fisher-Black.
It was 800 metres from the summit that Vollering unleashed her final acceleration to crack Niewiadoma-Phinney and crest the summit with 15” on the Polish rider and 33” on the five chasers. The Yellow Jersey would only increase her advantage over the downhill towards Nice, while Niewiadoma-Phinney got caught by the Longo Borghini group. In the end, Vollering reached the finish line throwing her arms in the air with more than one minute on her chasers, led home by Blasi.
Demi Vollering is the third rider to win the final stage of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift in the Yellow Jersey. Before her came Annemiek van Vleuten (2022) and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (2025). This was the first time the Dutch rider won a stage in the Tour while wearing the Yellow Jersey. He had won five stages before this one, and had worn the Yellow Jersey three days. Last but not least, this is the first win in the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift for a French team - in this case, FDJ United-Suez.
