As Lorena Wiebes is whisked off to the podium ceremonies after winning the fourth stage of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, and Demi Vollering is crowded with reporters wondering how she feels after yesterday’s crash, and Marianne Vos is presented with another yellow jersey, Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney is quietly warming down on the turbo trainer in the shade of trees outside the Canyon//SRAM team bus. She stretches her back and spins her legs, laughing with her teammates and chewing on a protein bar. There are very few cameras or journalists around her, and that is just what she wants.
The Polish rider may come to this bike race as defending Tour champion but so far, after four days of racing, she has kept a remarkably low profile. Crashes and controversy has been rife throughout the bunch, but Niewiadoma has avoided it all. She’s been in the top-10 of every stage so far apart from Tuesday’s (where she finished safely on the same time as sprint winner Wiebes) and no one is really talking about her. This is a good sign.
Her preparation for this race, as her sports director Ronny Lauke told Rouleur at the start of stage four, has been “perfect.” There has been time spent at altitude in Boulder, Colorado – where her husband, Taylor Phinney, is originally from – and team camps that have only strengthened the already strong morale within the Canyon//SRAM outfit. According to Lauke, things could not be any better.
“The biggest change is that last year we took the approach of every rider preparing alone in altitude. This year, that was something we wanted to change so we took a core group of riders to camp from the second half of the season after the Classics. We are trying to keep the core Tour de France team together and also in races too,” the German sports director explained.
“[Kasia] did two altitude blocks and one racing block between. After the Vuelta, it was all about switching the focus over to de France. She went back to the US, she did one longer altitude camp in Boulder, Colorado, before coming to recon the Tour de France then doing another altitude camp in Andorra after Nationals with the same core group of riders.”
For Niewiadoma herself, winning another yellow jersey has naturally been at the forefront of her mind, but she can shoulder the weight of this expectation. While others may crack under the watchful eyes of media attention and compare her performance this year to what she did in 2024, part of Niewiadoma’s strength is her ability to lock in and focus when it matters. If her training is going well, she is comfortable in her environment and can hold on to the right mindset, then all of the ingredients for success are there.
“Pressure is something I don't really feel anymore because as a young rider, I would allow myself to crack under pressure, and I think once I hit the rock bottom I became immune to it,” Niewiadoma explains, speaking to Rouleur as she warms down on her turbo trainer in a car park on the outskirts of Poitiers.
“I feel very privileged that I won this race already, it really makes me feel very proud and satisfied. If I add another yellow jersey, maybe I would be able to enjoy it even more, but it's not that I like that my life will end if we don't do it. I see both options. I'm super determined to win again, but again, I feel like it gives me just extra motivation versus negativity.”
Negativity is not a word that could ever be associated with the atmosphere in Canyon//SRAM at this Tour de France. In fact, positivity radiates around the group – from the riders to the staff – and it’s clear that Lauke’s mission to create a strong bond between the team has worked. Even throughout the tough, stringent preparation for the Tour de France Femmes, Niewiadoma says she has never lost her love for the game.
“The final camp was in Andorra and we were just with a small group of people and it was all about training hard, getting back, having good food and then recovering,” the 30-year-old remembers. “It was like a little ‘monk’ lifestyle but in some ways. But once you have three weeks with the one big goal that you need to achieve, it kind of feels pleasurable. Even though you go to bed at 9:30pm when it's still bright outside and it kind of feels like something is off with your life, you also enjoy it.”
Part of Niewiadoma’s motivation to do everything she can to come to this bike race in her best-ever shape is that the nine stages are perfectly suited to the former Tour winner’s strength. There is no time trial – one of her weaker disciplines – and the punchy, Classics-style stages are perfectly suited to her strengths.
“I was a little bit expecting that we will have a time trial, which with our GC ambitions would not necessarily help us, so that was a rather positive surprise,” Lauke explained. “I was pleased with the route and also when we recon’d the last three stages, I was really happy and pleased with where the organisers had put the key mountains.”
And it is the mountains where Canyon//SRAM believes that this Tour de France Femmes will be decided, just like in 2024. Last year, it was the mountains where Niewiadoma was able to cling on to her race lead and take the biggest victory of her career. Can she do the same again and be the first ever woman to win two editions of the Tour de France?
“We will do everything which will be in our strength. and we are confident that we can do it,” Lauke says. “But obviously we need to prove it on the road.”
