Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney moved into the Tour de France Femmes yellow jersey with a solo win on Mont Ventoux.The Polish rider attacked from a reduced group with Demi Vollering and Thursday’s race leader Marlen Reusser 9.7 kilometers from the finish. The pair, who had been first and second in the general classification (GC), did not respond and the gap grew to 1:45, as Niewiadoma-Phinney claimed her first stage victory at the Tour de France Femmes.After surging multiple times on the way up, Vollering eventually managed to distance herself from Reusser in the final kilometer to reduce the GC gap to 15 seconds between her and Niewiadoma-Phinney. The Swiss dropped to fourth on the day with a 1:42 deficit, 39 seconds down from the leader overall.In a hotly contested stage on the slopes of Ventoux, the ‘Giant of Provence’, Elisa Longo Borghini, led a chase group with team-mate Paula Blasi to rise to fourth in the overall standings, and third on the day. Chasing the podium, she is 2:59 behind the leader and 2:20 behind Reusser overall.Friday was the Tour’s first mountain stage, with slopes of up to 10 per cent gradient and an average 8.8 per cent for 15.7km on the legendary climb.SD Worx-Protime’s Anna van der Breggen did not start the stage after struggling with illness.The Athletic breaks down the day’s action.Niewiadoma-Phinney divides and conquersVollering and Reusser let Niewiadoma-Phinney go because they were looking at each other — a flaw Canyon-SRAM had predicted.The stage winner entered Friday further down on Vollering than the Dutchwoman had been on Reusser, so naturally she might have paid more attention to the yellow-jersey incumbent. But Niewiadoma-Phinney has finished on the podium in every edition of this race and won it in 2024. Hesitation ultimately did for Vollering and Reusser.Marlen Reusser and Demi Vollering on Mont Ventoux (Alex Broadway/Getty Images)The writing had been on the wall since stage five, when Canyon-SRAM had noticed bickering between their rivals. Niewiadoma-Phinney tried to exploit it then, launching her sprint early. She was eventually caught by Vollering — but the idea was there.