Aug 8 (Reuters) - Dutch rider Demi Vollering won the gruelling eighth stage of the Tour de France Femmes on Saturday to seize the yellow jersey from Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney and move into the overall lead with one day remaining.
The 171.9-km mountain stage from Sisteron to Nice was shaken up before the start when defending champion Pauline Ferrand-Prevot of Visma-Lease a Bike withdrew due to illness.
On the road, Vollering delivered the decisive move on the steep Chemin de l'Arieta climb with six kilometres remaining, accelerating clear of Niewiadoma-Phinney and Italy's Elisa Longo Borghini before extending her advantage on the descent into Nice.
The victory completed a swift turnaround for the FDJ United-Suez rider, who had lost one minute and 16 seconds to Niewiadoma-Phinney on Mont Ventoux the previous day.
"In a stage race, you live day-by-day. So you can be disappointed tonight, but then the next morning you need to put on a new mask and you go again. You try again, you make a plan with the team," Vollering said.
"Tomorrow is going to be super hard, of course. It's what I said since the beginning of the Tour: still, everything can happen on the last day, but at least I start in yellow tomorrow. And that's already a dream coming true."
The win gave Vollering her fifth spell in the yellow jersey and made her the fifth different rider to lead the 2026 edition of the race.
Longo Borghini of UAE Team ADQ finished second after edging Niewiadoma-Phinney in a sprint for the line, with the Polish rider crossing third as she relinquished the race lead.
Niewiadoma-Phinney expressed frustration after the stage and criticised FDJ United-Suez's tactics.
“I was super annoyed at the bottom of the climb because (Celia) Gery blocked me on purpose into the barriers so I had to stop pedalling," Niewiadoma-Phinney said.
"So I feel like if they want to compete, they should compete fair play and not block to me the barriers because it’s so childish. Honestly I lost a lot of respect for them because of that."
With the stage win and bonus seconds, Vollering moved eight seconds clear of Niewiadoma-Phinney in the general classification ahead of Sunday's finale around Nice.
(Reporting by Karan Prashant Saxena in Bengaluru; Editing by Ken Ferris and Pritha Sarkar)
