Demi Vollering showed her prowess on the final stage of the Tour de France Femmes to become the race’s first two-time winner.

The Dutch FDJ-Suez rider won the penultimate stage to snatch the leader’s yellow jersey from Katarzyna Niewiadoma-Phinney and carry an eight-second lead into Sunday’s finale.

The fifth edition of the race culminated with a 99.2km mountain stage, beginning and ending in Nice, which featured four ascents of the Col d’Eze and totalled 2,100m of climbing.

Niewiadoma-Phinney’s British team-mate Zoe Backstedt pushed the pace in the early stages before former race leader Marlen Reusser crashed on the second descent of the Col d’Eze.

Reusser was third in general classification, 72 seconds behind Vollering, and although the Swiss rider could finish, she was unable to get back in contention.

That left previous race winners Vollering and Niewiadoma-Phinney to battle it out and, just as Vollering did on Saturday, she pulled clear of her Polish Canyon-SRAM rival just before cresting the final climb and stretched her lead on the descent.

The 29-year-old went on to finish more than a minute ahead of her rivals as she claimed her third stage win from nine in this year’s race.

“I’ve never won wearing the yellow jersey before,” said Vollering. “It’s not only the dream to win in yellow here, to win a second Tour de France, but it’s the dream to live this life, to work hard together with people with a lot of passion. I think that’s the whole dream. It’s incredible.”

Niewiadoma-Phinney felt Vollering’s team-mate Celia Gery delibrately blocked her during stage eight, so Vollering wanted to prove a point with Sunday’s emphatic victory.

“I went alone because I wanted to make it clear that we didn’t win because of an incident yesterday,” she added.

“That’s not what I believe, and I wanted to make it clear that we, as a team, deserve to win a beautiful Tour de France Femmes, with humility and pride.”

Vollering and Niewiadoma-Phinney, 31, kept up their record of being on the podium in every edition of the race, while Italy’s Elisa Longo Borghini, 34, claimed her first top-three finish.

Keely Hodgkinson will seek to prove she is still number one after a “tricky” outdoor season when she comes up against world-class rivals in pursuit of a third consecutive European 800m title in Birmingham.

Olympic champion Hodgkinson, 24, has had much to celebrate in 2026, including breaking the long-standing indoor 800m world record, winning her first world title and improving her British record outdoors.

However, she was forced to settle for second behind Audrey Werro in achieving the latter at the Stockholm Diamond League, after the 22-year-old Swiss ran the fastest time since the outdoor world record was set 43 years ago.

While Werro has gone even faster since, a muscle “twinge” forced Hodgkinson’s withdrawal from the 400m final at the British Championships in June and she finished second to world champion Lilian Odira in Eugene, where she competed with her knees heavily bandaged after a nasty fall in training.

Add in the presence of the ever-improving Femke Broeders-Bol – the Dutch two-time world 400m hurdles champion who has chosen to switch events this season – and the women’s 800m on Friday night has become the must-watch event of the championships.

“I feel in a good place, obviously there was a tough patch in June and July, but I’m happy, I’m excited to compete and I just think it’ll bring out the best of me,” Hodgkinson said.

On her previous meeting with Werro, she added: “I think people [are] trying to make me feel like it was a failure and it really wasn’t.

“It was a British record, my fastest time ever, and I’m going to remind myself of that because I’m proud of that.

“I had a tricky few weeks but, honestly, I just think it’s really good that Audrey has come on really well and Femke is running well. It’s going to be a really good race. Let’s see what happens.”

PIF London Championship result

-22 A Huang (Can); -20 C Hull (Eng); -17 S Tan (Sin); -15 P Tavatanakit (Tha), -14 K Bennett (Aus)

Selected others: -12 A Hewson (Eng); -11 L Hall (Wal); -10 G Hall (Eng), A Donegan (Ire)

Full leaderboard

England’s Charley Hull let slip a one-shot lead with two holes to play at the PIF London Championship as 17-year-old Anna Huang won her fourth Ladies’ European Tour (LET) event.

The 30-year-old Hull was on course for her 10th professional title and sixth LET success, but four-putted the penultimate hole for a double bogey, while Huang eagled the last to win by two shots.

“That was probably the most thrilling round of golf of my life, that was crazy, I’m just so shocked,” the Canadian told the LET website.

“I knew coming down three tough holes was not easy and I tried to focus on each shot because anything can happen in golf and I stayed in my own lane.

“I can’t believe I made another eagle. I focused on the putt and made a good stroke, and it went in.

“Charley is such a phenomenal player and playing with her in the past two days in the final group has been really cool. The crowds have been cheering really loud, so it was really fun to be part of the last group.”

The tournament took place at Centurion Club, near St Albans, and Huang led after the first round with a six-under round of 67.

Hull’s first round on Thursday had been a one-over 74, but she catapulted herself into contention with an 11-under 62 on Friday to equal the lowest round in LET history and break the course record at the Centurion Club.

Huang’s best round came on Saturday with an eight-under 65 and she began the last round with a three-stroke advantage.

Birdies on the sixth, ninth, 13th, 15th and 16th took Hull into the lead by one shot, but that disappointing double-bogey five on the par-three 17th handed the advantage back to Huang and she finished in style.

Hull, who birdied the last for a 69, finished on 20 under to be three clear of Singapore’s Shannon Tan, with Thailand’s Patty Tavatanakit fourth on 15 under.