Kasia Niewiadoma’s nail-biting success in the Tour de France Femmes on Sunday was long-awaited and wholly deserved, and came after countless near misses in other major races. The Polish rider’s thrilling victory, late on an Alpine afternoon as a chilly sunset enveloped Alpe d’Huez, came at the expense of a crestfallen Demi Vollering. The defending champion lost her title by four seconds.

It was the narrowest margin of victory in the history of Grand Tour racing and came during a season when men’s racing has been monopolised by one dominant rider, Tadej Pogacar. The women’s Vuelta, Giro and Tour have been won by three riders and by narrow margins.

A few years ago, before the Tour Femmes was reborn, such was the cynicism that few – other than the riders themselves – would have believed the women’s peloton could produce such gripping mountaintop drama. Now the Tour Femmes must build on the enthralling spectacle Niewiadoma, Vollering and the rest of the peloton provided .

While Pogacar wins by huge margins Vollering won the Vuelta Feminina by 1min 49sec and in the women’s Giro d’Italia Elisa Longo Borghini beat Lotte Kopecky, Vollering’s teammate, by 21sec. Then came the high-altitude drama of Sunday, when the fate of the yellow jersey remained uncertain until the very last moments of racing.

“Alpe d’Huez was a proper showcase of our best climbers and GC riders,” Lizzie Deignan said. “It was an absolutely brutal finale to the race.”

The 27-year-old Vollering described her feelings as “sour” after the finish, which, given the paucity of support she received from SD Worx Protime, was unsurprising. The focal point for that bitterness was the crash shortly before the stage finish in Amnéville, a fall that cost her the yellow jersey.

Vollering never fully recovered and was all too often abandoned to her fate by her team. Instead of staying alongside her, they rode on, pursuing their own ambitions, or lagged behind, struggling to catch up. Too often that hindered the clearly injured defending champion. “[To think] because of the crash I didn’t win the yellow jersey is very sad, but it’s part of cycling,” she said. “It’s sad that that makes the difference here.”

For Niewiadoma, winner of the women’s Tour of Britain in 2019, it was a monumental breakthrough, even if she had come close to throwing in the towel on the seemingly never-ending climb of Alpe d’Huez. “I lost the faith that I could still do it,” she said. “I’ve gone through such a terrible time on this climb.”

For the development of the race, the dramatic denouement that led to Niewiadoma’s win will build its global reputation, even if there are still issues to be resolved. The crowds on the Alpe, a climb known for boisterous behaviour, were worryingly small and subdued. The live TV coverage of each stage was minimal, the transfers between stages too long and the inclusion of a split stage in the Netherlands – a stage and time trial on the same day – was unnecessary.

Then there is the money. The total prize pot for the men’s Tour is €2.4m (£2.04m) and Pogacar took home €500,000. In the women’s race, the total is just under €247,000 and Niewiadoma pocketed €50,000.

Of the 153 starters, 110 made it to the finish line, but what shone through was the camaraderie of the riders, many of whom crossed the line in tears, hugging their rivals in exhaustion, although Canada’s Alison Jackson bucked that trend by arriving at the Alpe eating a burger.

“This race has captured the public’s attention,” Deignan said. “I really hope the Tour continues to grow, whether that’s the length of the race, having each stage being broadcast from start to finish or simply seeing more fans every year. We have more than proved that we are deserving of that.”

Niewiadoma was more direct. “We all wrote history this week,” she said of what the peloton had been through. “And we can be proud of that.”