Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney moved into the Tour de France Femmes yellow jersey with a solo win on Mont Ventoux.

The Polish rider attacked from a reduced group with Demi Vollering and Thursday’s race leader Marlen Reusser 9.7 kilometers from the finish. The pair, who had been first and second in the general classification (GC), did not respond and the gap grew to 1:45, as Niewiadoma-Phinney claimed her first stage victory at the Tour de France Femmes.

After surging multiple times on the way up, Vollering eventually managed to distance herself from Reusser in the final kilometer to reduce the GC gap to 15 seconds between her and Niewiadoma-Phinney. The Swiss dropped to fourth on the day with a 1:42 deficit, 39 seconds down from the leader overall.

In a hotly contested stage on the slopes of Ventoux, the ‘Giant of Provence’, Elisa Longo Borghini, led a chase group with team-mate Paula Blasi to rise to fourth in the overall standings, and third on the day. Chasing the podium, she is 2:59 behind the leader and 2:20 behind Reusser overall.

Friday was the Tour’s first mountain stage, with slopes of up to 10 per cent gradient and an average 8.8 per cent for 15.7km on the legendary climb.

SD Worx-Protime’s Anna van der Breggen did not start the stage after struggling with illness.

The Athletic breaks down the day’s action.

Niewiadoma-Phinney divides and conquers

Vollering and Reusser let Niewiadoma-Phinney go because they were looking at each other — a flaw Canyon-SRAM had predicted.

The stage winner entered Friday further down on Vollering than the Dutchwoman had been on Reusser, so naturally she might have paid more attention to the yellow-jersey incumbent. But Niewiadoma-Phinney has finished on the podium in every edition of this race and won it in 2024. Hesitation ultimately did for Vollering and Reusser.

Marlen Reusser and Demi Vollering on Mont Ventoux (Alex Broadway/Getty Images)

The writing had been on the wall since stage five, when Canyon-SRAM had noticed bickering between their rivals. Niewiadoma-Phinney tried to exploit it then, launching her sprint early. She was eventually caught by Vollering — but the idea was there.

Movistar and FDJ have to learn their lesson from this stage. But make no mistake: Niewiadoma-Phinney’s ride was incredibly strong in its own right, and it should not be overlooked how she built a lead of nearly two minutes on the race leader and favourite at the time.

With Antonia Niedermaier riding well alongside her too, the 31-year-old will have gained a lot of confidence for the final two days of the Tour.

GC blown apart — so who is in the best position?

There are only two days left in the biggest grand tour of the season, and who wins overall is still up in the air.

Niewiadoma-Phinney has done the fans a favour by bringing the top three within 39 seconds of each other, which could be chipped away at on the four ascents of the Col d’Eze (which is 7.7km at 5.9 per cent) on the final day.

Vollering is only 15 seconds off the Polish rider too, keeping her well in contention. Something will have to change, however, to avoid the same mistakes of this ascent, particularly as Niewiadoma-Phinney can afford to turn defensive, at least for Saturday’s ride.

The new yellow-jersey wearer was the last of the top three to still have her domestique with her on Friday’s stage, with Niedermaier outlasting Celia Gery and the Movistar team, though the former was pulling in the group early in the day.

Reusser and Vollering will have to be proactive and race smartly, then, to try and usurp Niewiadoma-Phinney — who has that and the time cushion to her benefit.

While the final stage has climbs to attack on and the organisers categorise it as a mountain stage, it has descents in between to rest on.

The punchier profile, only 99km in length, could suit Vollering the best, as she can draw on her hilly stage-five win, where she finished with more in the tank than her competitors.

Team tactics helped make this a thrilling watch

While there are a number of strong domestiques in the peloton, most of them fell off early into the climb. Only Blasi was able to stay with her leader until the final kilometers.

The steep slopes of Ventoux have a part to play in that, but it is also indicative of a wider trend in women’s cycling. It is rare to see a team able to completely control the peloton in numbers, as could be seen on Thursday, and many teams thin to only one, if any, domestique in the final stages.

The effect of this is an arguably more exciting race for individuals, where more emphasis is placed on what each rider can do on the day.

On the other side of the coin, team tactics can be an important facet of cycling and equally fun to watch over the whole stage. Longo Borghini introduced another exciting layer of jeopardy to the race by overtaking Reusser in the final kilometer.

Would she have been able to do that without Blasi there to ride with? Less certain. UAE Team L’Imad have been vindicated in their commitment to their tactics, despite some earlier this week criticising the decision not to make Blasi a team leader so she could ride for herself.

Money is a limitation, with the sport growing but teams still having small budgets for transfers. Judging by the excitement all the way up Ventoux — with a wide range of fans lining the road with flags and signs — the appetite for the sport is only growing, so those finances should not be an issue for long.

There was plenty of excitement on the ascent of Mont Ventoux (Nicolas Tucat/ AFP via Getty Images)

What is up next Saturday?

The penultimate stage of the race will take the peloton 175km from Sisteron to Nice, making it the longest day of riding.

Vollering, Reusser and Longo Borghini will want to gain some time on this route as they chase the final podium spots. Canyon-SRAM directeur sportive Rolf Aldag suggested Niewiadoma-Phinney will “make sure no one goes anywhere”.

With the profile less challenging, she can afford to ride in a more defensive way, and it will be up to the other rivals to decide how to play it.

Stage 7 Top 5

1. Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney, Canyon-SRAM, 4 hours, 22 minutes and 53 seconds
2. Demi Vollering, FDJ United Suez, +1 minute and 16 seconds
3. Elisa Longo Borghini, UAE Team-L’imad, +1 minute and 42 seconds
4. Marlen Reusser, Movistar, +1 minute and 46 seconds
5. Paula Blasi, UAE Team-L’imad, +1 minute and 48 seconds

Overall standings

1. Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney, Canyon-SRAM, 24 hours, 7 minutes, 34 seconds
2. Demi Vollering, FDJ United Suez, +15 seconds
3. Marlen Reusser, Movistar, +39 seconds
4. Elisa Longo Borghini, UAE Team-L’imad, +2 minutes and 59 seconds
5. Antonia Niedermaier, Canyon-SRAM, +3 minutes and 21 seconds

Sunday navel gazing after a bruising midweek in Europe is becoming all too familiar for Scottish football, but this time Motherwell and Hibernian can look forward to second legs with some real hopes of progress, albeit in the third-tier Conference League qualifiers.

The Lanarkshire side will hope to finish off the job after a 1-1 draw away to HJK Helskini as they continue to earn plaudits for the style of play adopted last season by Jens Berthel Askou and adapted by new manager Alfred Johansson.

However, they will have to improve first on their record against Falkirk, who have won on their latest three visits to Fir Park and have not lost to Well in six meetings.

Since a 1-0 win over Well at Falkirk Stadium in May, though, John McGlynn’s side have lost four in a row in the Premiership.

Hibs’ 2-1 win over North Macedonians Shkendija was a bit of struggle, but at least it was better than their opening defeat at home to Well.

Now they travel to Glasgow looking to become the first-ever side to win in consecutive league games at Ibrox after winning 2-1 there in May.

Indeed, Hibs have won on two of their last three league visits and another would heap more pressure on new Rangers manager Derek McInnes after Thursday’s defeat in Poland.

That will be especially so should Celtic, who could be without O’Neill despite the manager being released from hospital, secure a ninth win in a row over Kilmarnock and a ninth league win in a row overall to create a healthy early lead over their title rivals.

The odds of that must be good considering the Ayrshire side, who lost their opener to St Johnstone, have failed to win their first two top-flight games in 12 of the previous 15 seasons.

Similarly, Hearts cannot afford a third consecutive league defeat – having lost last season’s decider against Celtic then their opener with Aberdeen – if they are to mount a similar challenge to the one under McInnes last term.

They have not won on Dundee United’s last three visits to Tynecastle and further questions will be asked of new head coach Wouter Vrancken if they suffer a fifth straight defeat.

The Belgian’s side have lost 14 goals in those four games and will not be helped by centre-half Stuart Findlay’s suspension, but United have themselves not kept a clean sheet in 17 away games in the Premiership and have kept the fewest away clean sheets of any side since the start of last season.

It could be a goal fest at Tynecastle.