Niewiadoma draws conclusions after reviewing her numbers: "The level is much higher this year"

The Canyon//SRAM leader finished eighth on the Madeleine. “I mean, of course, the stage was very hard. Personally, I don’t feel really uplifted or stoked because that’s not the result that I worked hard for. But at the same time, looking at the climb and the numbers, I know that it was the best effort of my life.”

"So the fact that others improved so much just shows how the women’s peloton is growing, and it just makes me wonder — what else can you be doing to be winning the races when simple improvement is not enough anymore? I had the best 90-minute power numbers – even in comparison to the last two stages of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift last year. This year is a lot higher," she explains. There was no way Niewiadoma could do anything but pedal hard.

“On such a long climb or gruelling, steep parts, you just push as much as you can. When Gigante and Ferrand-Prevot went away, I just wanted to close the gap, but then, they were also kind of lucky in the way that the breakaway riders from their team were waiting for them. First, Ghekiere, the Belgian National champion, she pulled them up harder, then she dropped. I also saw that the Visma rider was there waiting for Pauline as well. So, it’s almost like everything perfectly aligned for them, as it aligned for us last year. So, no blame for that. But yeah, it was definitely a beast climb and then it’s also chapeau for Pauline because she must have been pushing insanely high power to still put three minutes into us.”

Niewiadoma hopes to still make it to the podium on the final day. “I know that the yellow jersey is out of reach, but I think that there are many teams that there are motivated to do something and yeah, we really hope to get that podium spot at the end.”

“I’m thinking more that maybe Gigante can drop because there are some technical descents and it’s not like we finish on the top of the climb. Of course, her team is super strong because they proven so far how many times they were just around her, shepherding her on the descent or bringing her up to the front. But yeah, I do believe that there is still a chance.”