A dark road carves its way through the pale face of Ventoux.Hundreds of eyes are scattered far and wide across the expanse above Provence, all focused on one point. And then she appears.Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney rounds the corner as a dark speck dancing through the white limestone around her. Cheers ripple up the mountainside as she climbs and for a long moment, she is the only rider in sight. It is her race.Two more round the bend, and another group not far behind, but it is too late — the Polish rider has gone again.She crosses the line at the summit 76 seconds before anyone else and throws both arms into the air before swaying and collapsing back down.The rider had wrenched the coveted yellow leader’s jersey from Marlen Reusser on stage 7 with one of the best climbing performances the Tour de France Femmes has ever seen.The Polish rider went solo nearly 9.7 kilometers from the finish on one of France’s toughest climbs, and grew a gap of 1:45 at its maximum from just one attack.She was untouchable — how did she do it?Niewiadoma-Phinney has been smiling all week.Two days before the Mont Ventoux ascent on Friday, she attacked early. It was a gruelling hilly stage, in which FDJ United Suez’ Demi Vollering had mounted several aggressive moves before isolating the Canyon-SRAM rider and Reusser (Movistar).Niewiadoma-Phinney sensed tension between the two riders above her in the general classification and launched a sprint from far out before being reeled back in by Vollering, who overtook her for the win. She fell back to third, having also been overtaken by Reusser in the final moments.“Almost!” she exclaimed as she reached her team bus.At this point, the 31-year-old had not won a race since the Poland national championships the year before and had not won a World Tour race since 2024. Despite having come so close on Wednesday to crossing the line first, she was laughing and relaxed.“I definitely dream of winning the jersey again, that’s the main goal, and whatever comes, as long as we do our best then it’s all good,” she told reporters after the stage. “We came here to fight and we have shown so far that we are fighting.”An exhausted Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney celebrates her stage seven triumph (Nicolas Tucat/AFP via Getty Images)Faced with the same pair in an isolated group on Mont Ventoux, Niewiadoma-Phinney attacked from range again. This time no one replied.“The idea was to just follow, follow, and mainly focus on Demi (Vollering),” Movistar sports director Kelvin Dekker told reporters after the stage.