Demi Vollering won the penultimate stage of the 2026 Tour de France Femmes to take the yellow jersey from Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney.The Dutchwoman made multiple attacks from 6.7 kilometers out on Saturday, sparking a response from Niewiadoma-Phinney and Elisa Longo Borghini, before going solo with 5.5km left.Stage eight was the longest day of racing in this year’s event, with a 175km route taking the peloton from Sisteron to Nice.It was an unlikely day for general classification (GC) action due to the average descent into the finish, starting 80km into the day. There were multiple short climbs, however, within the final 17km, in which Vollering distanced her rivals.Niewiadoma-Phinney finished 17 seconds down on the FDJ United-Suez rider in third, on the same time as Longo Borghini. This took the Pole to eight seconds behind Vollering overall, with Marlen Reusser distanced to 1:12 off top spot.Meanwhile, Célia Gery again pulled Vollering into position before the climbs — but was heavily criticised at the finish by Niewiadoma-Phinney, who said she had purposefully blocked her.The Athletic analyses the day’s action.Block-gateAt the finish line, Niewiadoma-Phinney was fuming.The Canyon-SRAM rider told broadcasters Gery “on purpose just blocked me to the barriers, where I had to stop pedalling”.“If they want to compete, they should compete (with) fair play and not look to close me into the barriers, because I feel like it’s so childish,” Niewiadoma-Phinney added. “Honestly, I lost all the respect for them for that.”The Pole confronted 20-year-old Gery, as filmed by Dutch outlet Wielerflits, asking if it was “part of the plan”.