After brutal Tour de France Femmes win, Katarzyna Niewiadoma dreams of equality

PARIS – Poland’s Katarzyna Niewiadoma won the Tour de France Femmes in dramatic fashion while suffering the worst pain she had ever experienced, and now dreams of a day when men and women are treated equally in sport.

On Aug 18, she fought off the challenge of defending champion Demi Vollering in one of the most exciting final stages of any race, where the Dutch rider crossed the line first but the Pole bravely hung on to the yellow jersey.

Vollering began the last day eighth overall, one minute 15 seconds behind, but was expected to provide the biggest danger and when she made her move on the penultimate climb, Niewiadoma believed it was all over.

“Definitely there was a point on the climb... where I thought I’d lost everything because I didn’t feel great, physically or mentally,” the 29-year-old said.

“It wasn’t helpful not being up there when Demi attacked. From that moment until the end of the climb was really hard mentally. On the descent I just ate everything I had and regained my power and once I started to feel like my body was responding on the descent, I thought, okay I just have to try.”

That renewed energy lasted only a while and in the final stages Niewiadoma, despite running on empty, somehow continued to chase down her rival.

“The energy only lasted until 3km to go because from that point it was the worst experience I’ve ever had in my life on the bike, pain-wise,” the Canyon-SRAM rider added.

“It was just a matter of staying on the bike and trying to push. I don’t even know what I was doing with my body but I was trying to get there at all costs.”

Vollering was the first to reach the finish, gaining an extra 10 seconds for the stage win, but Niewiadoma battled until the very end, coming in fourth and doing enough to win the Tour by four seconds.

“When I crossed the finishing line, to be honest, my mind was blank,” Niewiadoma said.

“The last 3km were so terrible and I was in so much pain that all I wanted was to just lay down.

“I remember crossing the line and dreaming of open space, so I could lay down and see nobody. All of a sudden I heard screaming in my ear, which was amazing because then we learnt that we won the Tour de France.”

Niewiadoma, third in the previous two Tours, triumphed in a race which concluded on an iconic climb and while she might have preferred an easier ending, the dramatic finish attracted plenty of interest.

“I think the last battle brought a lot of attention because it was very interesting to watch, not knowing what would happen until the last metres,” she said.

Her financial reward was €50,000 (S$72,800), while Tadej Pogacar, winner of the men’s Tour in July, earned 10 times that amount, but Niewiadoma believes this will change.

“The goal of every rider is to one day have a daughter that competes in sports and laughs at the times when there were differences between men and women,” she added.

“It should be totally normal that for equal suffering, there’s an equal reward.” REUTERS