Demi Vollering missed out on a second successive Tour de France title by the narrowest of margins in a dramatic finish at the summit of L’Alpe d’Huez.

The 27-year-old Dutch rider fell short by an agonising four seconds, despite winning the final stage, as her Polish rival Kasia Niewiadoma rolled in fourth, one minute 1 second later, to claim the overall victory.

Vollering launched her bid for victory on the penultimate climb of Sunday’s stage, the 150km Col du Glandon, immediately opening up a gap of more than a minute on Niewiadoma.

But Vollering was tailed over the mountain by another Dutch rider, Pauliena Rooijakkers, who started the day just two seconds behind her in the general classification. A stage win for Rooijakkers, with bonus seconds, would guarantee an advantage of three seconds over her fellow countrywoman.

Rooijakkers’ decision to sit on Vollering’s wheel and bide her time over the last 50km of the stage ultimately cost both women their chances of winning the tour.

Niewiadoma closed the gap from 1 minute 25 seconds to 40 seconds as the riders reached the foot of Alpe d’Huez. And although Vollering stretched her lead to over a minute on the steep lower slopes, she was unable to turn it into a winning lead as Niewiadoma rallied again to keep the deficit to around a minute.

Confidence regained

Vollering sprinted away to take the stage win, four seconds ahead of Rooijakkers. Niewiadoma was outsprinted in the final metres by Frenchwoman Evita Muzic, denying her five bonus seconds, but had just enough in hand to clinch the yellow jersey in the closest finish in the race’s history.

Niewiadoma, who rides with the Canyon-SRAM team, paid tribute to the cheering fans for getting her through the final kilometres.

“This victory goes to so many people,” she said. “On the Glandon I lost my confidence. All of a sudden I got my power back.”

Rooijakers, who finished third overall, 10 seconds behind the Pole, thanked her Fenix-Deceuninck team-mates. “The whole week with the team we worked really hard,” she said. “Just stick in Demi’s wheel and go full out.”

Vollering, who rides with the SD Worx-Primetime team, had established herself as favourite for the race on day three when she unexpectedly won the short time-trial stage in Rotterdam.

But she lost time in a crash on the fifth stage from Bastogne to Amneville, allowing Niewiadoma, who finished second in the stage, to take the overall race lead.

Dutch sprinter Charlotte Kool won the opening two sprint stages in The Hague and Rotterdam, before the riders crossed the border into Belgium and France.