Demi Vollering wins Stage 8 of Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift and takes the yellow jersey heading into final day

Want to see how Vollering won today's stage and took the yellow jersey from Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney? Check this out...

What started out as a flat day with a good chance for the sprinters to grab another stage win before the final mountain stage turned into a GC shakeup that not many saw coming as Demi Vollering claimed the yellow jersey in dramatic circumstances.

A breakaway of Maeva Squiban (UAE Team L'Imad) and Loes Adegeest (Lidl-Trek) managed to get a gap of six minutes and they worked well together until Squiban crashed on the descent of the second to last climb with 17km to go. With Squiban clutching her arm, Adegeest was left with a raging peloton chasing her down.

She was eventually caught just before the final climb and, as soon as the road headed upwards, Lorena Wiebes (SD-Worx Protime) was dropped. The green jersey had a fantastic day, sticking to the front group as long as she did with the injection of pace up the climbs.

That being said, not many expected Vollering (FDJ-United Suez) to attack. Yet she did, taking just Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon//SRAM) and Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team L'Imad) with her.

She attacked once more just before the crest of the climb, this time gapping the two riders behind her, and from there she soloed to the finish with a gap of 17" by the end of the stage.

Speaking to reporters about how she found the strength to fight again today, Vollering said: "You just need to do it. I mean in a stage race you live day by day, so you can be disappointed overnight 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."

And looking ahead to tomorrow, she added: "Tomorrow it's going to be super hard of course, it's what I've said since the beginning of the Tour, still anything could happen on the last day but at least I start in yellow tomorrow and that's already a dream coming true. I won two stages and I have yellow on my shoulders, so that's already super special and we're going to try everything to keep the yellow tomorrow."

"Yeah I thought they would do something. I was super annoyed at the beginning of the climb because Gery on purpose just blocked me to the barriers and I had to stop pedaling so I feel like if they want to compete, they should compete fairly and not look to force me into the barriers because I feel like it's so childish. Honestly, I lost all the respect for them for that."

When asked about tomorrow, she said:

"We still have the same goal, right? Go get the yellow jersey but we need to talk with the team and evaluate what is the plan now."

Oosh what a stage that was. Well, the last 10km or so. Vollering finished 17" ahead of Longo Borghini and Niewiadoma Phinney, putting her into the maillot jaune as we head into the final day of this year's Tour de France avec Zwift.

She's surprised everyone with that late attack, but it's paid off and she will also be in the yellow jersey going into the final day tomorrow.

Kasia Niewiadoma's yellow jersey dreams are disappearing up the road from her here.

We've also got the white jersey group which includes Marlen Reusser 42" behind the yellow jersey group.

It's going to be a flat run into the line and Vollering is somewhat known for her time trialing abilities...

Hey, who said this was going to be a sprinter's stage? What a buffoon...

Longo Borghini and Niewiadoma are trying hard to get back onto Vollering's wheel but Vollering could take the maillot jaune at this pace...

She's slowly making in-roads as Longo Borghini and Niewiadoma are gapped!

Elisa Longo Borghini and Niewiadoma both go with her, who could have predicated this?!

We've got punchy riders up front with the likes of Kasia Niewiadoma, Demi Vollering, Celia Gery, Cedrine Kerbaol and more

She might still make it back after this climb...but SD-Worx Protime still has Lotte Kopecky up there to take this stage.

Will this be enough to get rid of the likes of Lorena Wiebes?

GC contenders are coming to the front as the gap to Adegeest is now none existent. She's going to be reeled in shortly.

She's still clutching her arm so hopefully she can receive medical attention ASAP. Adegeest is still solo out front and holding her own with a 1' gap.

Obviously we're not doctors but it's not looking good as she struggles to hold her bars.

She's gone down on the descent, slid out on a tight hairpin. That's a blow for the breakaway.

Canyon-SRAM are hitting the front in the peloton, and the gap to the two breakaway riders has dropped to 1'.

The peloton is starting to work harder now and bringing the front two riders back in before we reach the final few kickers of the stage.