Dutch cyclist Demi Vollering wins first Women's Tour de France title

SD Worx team leader Vollering, 26, finished the eight-stage race ahead of Belgian teammate Lotte Kopecky and Poland's Katarzyna Niewiadoma of the Canyon-SRAM team.

It was the 15th victory this year for world number one Vollering who dominated the spring classics, with a hat-trick in the Ardennes – Fleche Wallonne, Liege and Amstel – that only compatriot Anna van der Breggen had achieved before her. 

Defending champion Annemiek van Vleuten, 40, who will retire at the end of the season, finished off the podium in fourth.

In the streets of Pau, watched by French prime minister Elisabeth Borne, on roads that had dried after heavy morning showers, Reusser set the fastest time of 29min 15secs over the 22km course at the bottom of the Pyrenean foothills.

The Swiss achieved her seventh success of the season after the Ghent-Wevelgem, the Tour of Switzerland and the Tour of the Basque Country. 

Vollering took second place in this final time trial which changed the order of the podium established on Saturday at the top of the Col du Tourmalet. 

Kopecky, who had worn the leader's yellow jersey for six days from the first stage, moved from fourth to second overall at the expense of Van Vleuten, who finished 12th in Pau.

Niewiadoma matched her 2022 performance and also won the mountain classification.

(AFP)

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