Demi Vollering hits back hard and cracks Niewiadoma, who gets help from Longo Borghini in Nice

Demi Vollering has taken control in spectacular fashion at the Tour de France Femmes. A day after Kasia Niewiadoma’s attack on Mont Ventoux, Vollering struck back hard in what appeared to be a relatively easy stage to Nice. Her team surged up the final climb, Vollering outpaced Niewiadoma on a steep little climb, and along the Nice promenade, the Dutch rider rode to stage victory and the yellow jersey. Niewiadoma finished third, 17 seconds behind, thanks to Elisa Longo Borghini.

The women's peloton headed towards Nice for the first time on Saturday, although the stage began in Sisteron, more than 100 kilometres away. From the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, the road gradually climbed. It was never particularly vicious, but over the opening 80 kilometres the riders still had to gain around 600 metres of elevation. They did so by crossing the Col des Robines (2.6 km at 4.6 percent) and the Col de Toutes Aures (6.4 km at 3.1 percent).

The finale was considerably more demanding. As the race approached the Var delta, the Côte de Colomars provided the first major obstacle. It was a short climb at 1.5 kilometres and 5.4 percent, but certainly not completely straightforward. A brief descent then brought the riders to the Côte de la Ginestière. At 2.5 kilometres, this climb was slightly longer and averaged around 4.2 percent. The gradient rose to roughly 7.5 percent at its steepest before an extremely steep ramp provided one final opportunity to make a difference.

The stage got underway at 1.40pm, but one major name was already missing: Pauline Ferrand-Prévot. The defending champion had struggled with her form throughout the week and was not feeling well before stage 8. After discussions with Visma | Lease a Bike and the team's medical staff, it was decided that she would not start the stage. Her difficult Tour de France Femmes therefore came to a premature end before the decisive weekend in Nice.

Once racing began, however, it quickly became clear that Visma | Lease a Bike had no intention of simply accepting its setback. During the long 175-kilometre stage, Daniek Hengeveld and Lieke Nooijen both took turns attacking, with Marianne Vos also getting involved. None of them ultimately made the decisive move, however. Instead, the breakaway was reduced to just two riders: Lidl-Trek's Loes Adegeest and Maeve Squiban of UAE, who had enjoyed such a successful Tour de France Femmes the previous year.

The peloton was happy to let the pair go and initially allowed their advantage to grow to a maximum of six minutes. Adegeest and Squiban consequently crossed both the Col des Robines and the Col de Toutes Aures at the front, while they also collected the maximum available points at the intermediate sprint. Behind them, Lorena Wiebes was the first rider from the peloton across the line and picked up another 17 points towards the green jersey classification.

Heading into the finale, Liv AlUla Jayco did much of the chasing, although the two leaders still carried a useful advantage towards the decisive climbs. Adegeest and Squiban made it over the Côte de Colomars together, but things went badly wrong for the French rider on the descent. Squiban crashed in a hairpin bend and immediately showed that she was in considerable discomfort. Adegeest managed to steer around her fallen rival and suddenly found herself alone at the front of the race.

The Dutch rider's chances did not last much longer, because the sprinters' teams soon disappeared from the front of the peloton and were replaced by FDJ United-SUEZ. Demi Vollering's team began driving the pace from the bottom of the Côte de la Ginestière. The gradients themselves were not especially severe, but Franziska Koch and Célia Gery pushed hard all the way to the summit and continued applying pressure on the descent. That was important, because another brutally steep uncategorised ramp was still waiting, with sections reaching double-digit gradients.

That was where Vollering made her move. Only yellow jersey Kasia Niewiadoma and Italian champion Elisa Longo Borghini were initially capable of following the Dutchwoman. Their resistance did not last until the summit, though. Longo Borghini was the first to lose contact and, just below the top of the uncategorised ramp, Niewiadoma also stalled. Vollering immediately spotted the gap, kept the pressure on and threw herself into the descent with a valuable advantage over the yellow jersey.

In a technical descent, Longo Borghini took the lead among the chasers, with the stage win in mind. Down below, with Niewiadoma on his wheel, the pair was just 5 seconds behind Vollering, but Vollering still had some energy left in the final flat kilometers along the boulevard in Nice. Vollering pushed hard, and Niewiadoma was lucky that Longo Borghini kept going.

At the finish, Vollering had a 17-second lead, plus 10 bonus seconds. Longo Borghini, who was riding for a potential podium spot in the general classification, finished second and earned 6 bonus seconds. Niewiadoma finished third, earned 4 bonus seconds, and saw her 15-second lead in the general classification turn into an 8-second deficit to Vollering. The decisive stage in Nice awaits on Sunday.