Niewiadoma clings on for women's Tour de France title

Poland's Kasia Niewiadoma did enough in a thrilling battle with rival Demi Vollering on the iconic Alpe d'Huez climb to secure overall victory in the women's Tour de France by four seconds.

Niewiadoma crossed the line in fourth place and broke down in tears as she realised she had done enough to keep the yellow jersey by a margin of four seconds, with Pauliena Rooijakkers taking second place on the final stage and Evita Muzic third.

Vollering (SD-Worx-Protime) began the day eighth overall, one minute and 15 seconds down on Niewiadoma (Canyon–SRAM), but the Dutch rider was expected to be the main danger on the 149.9-km ride from Le Grand-Bornand to Alpe d'Huez.

Vollering crossed the line first but then had the agonising wait for her rival, and Niewiadoma, in a world of pain on the final climb, bravely battled to come in one minute and one seconds behind her rival with an overall time of 24 hours, 36 minutes, seven seconds.

Vollering did take an extra 10 seconds for the stage win, but narrowly missed out on what would have been an exceptional comeback after losing the yellow jersey following a crash on stage five.

Her expected move came close to the summit of Col du Glandon, with more than 50km left to ride, and Niewiadoma was unable to keep pace. In the end Pauliena Rooijakkers was the only one able to go with Vollering.

Rooijakkers was two seconds ahead of Vollering in the general classification and had little intention of helping her fellow Dutchwoman, who had to do most of the work but couldn't shake off her pursuer until the finish line.

Behind them, Niewiadoma fought hard to lose as little time as possible. She had two others for company, Muzic and Gaia Realini, but as they climbed the Alpe d'Huez the gap began to increase going out to over a minute.

Rooijakkers, who finished third overall, attacked in the closing kilometres but Vollering stuck with her and won the fight between the Dutch duo for the stage. Niewiadoma, meanwhile, did just enough to win the real battle on one of cycling's most famous climbs.

"It's so crazy to be honest because the whole stage was such a crazy rollercoaster," Niewiadoma said.

"I had a really bad moment on Glandon and then on the descent I was able to kind of rebuild myself and refresh."