She Just Won the Tour de France by the Narrowest Margin Ever

Katarzyna "Kasia" Niewiadoma of Poland won the women's Tour de France Sunday by just four seconds overall—the narrowest margin ever, in either the men's or women's edition of the cycling race. The smallest margin ever in the men's race was in 1989, when Greg LeMond won by eight seconds, the Wall Street Journal reports. Niewiadoma fended off defending champion Demi Vollering of the Netherlands to hold on to the yellow jersey during Sunday's grueling Alpe d'Huez climb, the Guardian reports. This is Niewiadoma's first Tour title, with a winning time of 24 hours, 36 minutes, 7 seconds for the 588-mile race, the AP reports.

"I hated every moment of this last climb, but when I heard that I had won the Tour de France, I could not believe it," Niewiadoma said. The Journal explains her win like so: "This is the strange math of professional cycling. Some days are about squashing the competition with dizzying displays of raw power. ... But some races are also won through the painful art of damage limitation. It's one thing to feel superhuman and pedal away from the peloton. It's another to feel horrific and stay just close enough. Which is exactly what Niewiadoma did." As for Vollering, she said she felt "bitter" at the close finish. (More Tour de France stories.)