She changed for the podium ceremony. Demi Vollering has exchanged her all-white suit for black trousers and a white jersey, featuring the blue stripes and yellow stars that mark her as the reigning European champion. An added cap completes the outfit.
The question is whether it was really necessary. Her jersey and pants with which she crossed the finish line an hour earlier were almost as pristine white as at the start more than four hours earlier. Vollering was so unapproachable on this Easter Sunday that she crossed the line as if it were no problem for her to win the Tour of Flanders for the first time in her career.
“It didn’t feel very heavy,” Vollering agrees not long afterwards with a smile. She has just successfully completed a solo of more than sixteen kilometers and received a golden wheel as a trophy on the podium. “At the end you really feel that you have cycled 160 kilometers, but I had the feeling that I was in control of the race all day long.”
Vollering is the seventh Dutch winner of the Flemish classic and joins the list of Mirjam Melchers-Van Poppel (2005, 2006), Annemiek van Vleuten (2011, 2021), Marianne Vos (2013), Ellen van Dijk (2014), Anna van der Breggen (2018) and Chantal van den Broek-Blaak (2020). It is the first time in five years that a Dutch woman has won again. After a dominant series by the Belgian Lotte Kopecky, who won three times in the last four years, Vollering showed on Sunday that she was clearly the strongest.
Outspoken leader
There were of course favorites in advance and the well-known names were discussed, but for the first time in years it was difficult to predict in recent weeks who would win this edition of the Tour of Flanders. Searching for the results of other races didn’t help: each of the eight one-day races on the Women’s World Tour this season produced a different winner.
For example, Kopecky from SD-Worx, title defender in Flanders, won that other classic Milan-San Remo. Her teammate Lorena Wiebes took victory in In Flanders Fields (Gent-Wevelgem). Vollering, who plays for the French FDJ-Suez, was the best in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, while the Swiss Marlen Reusser of the Spanish Movistar won Dwars door Vlaanderen on Wednesday.
Enough teams that had reason to think they had a chance on Sunday morning at the start in Oudenaarde. An employee dressed as an Easter bunny in a cycling outfit appeared at the SD-Worx team bus; Kopecky took a picture with it laughing. At FDJ-Suez Vollering had enough time to play with her Frisian staby.
In the past, Vollering always raced in front of teammates in the Tour of Flanders, such as Kopecky, Chantal van den Broek-Blaak and Anna van der Breggen, who were rated slightly higher than her when it came to the short climbing that the Flemish cobblestone hills require. Vollering has already achieved a top 10 ranking four times and finished second behind teammate Kopecky in 2023.
This year Vollering was at the start as an outspoken leader for the first time. It was one of the reasons why she left the Dutch team SD-Worx a year and a half ago and decided to drive for the French FDJ-Suez, Vollering said afterwards. “When I shared the leadership in the past, I sometimes found it easier to sacrifice myself for my teammate, because then I didn’t have to feel the pressure. This is more difficult, all the pressure was 100 percent on my shoulders. But I knew I could handle it well.”
Tough first kilometers
On Sunday morning there is fear in the peloton about the weather conditions. It might rain, which could turn the cobblestone climbs into gripless ice surfaces; the wind may blow, causing the peloton to break into pieces due to fan formation. The rain stays away, but the wind plays a role at the start of the race. The riders hang diagonally against the wind to prevent falls, you can hear the screeching on the television images. Several times the peloton threatens to split up, but each time it is only just prevented with great efforts.
The relatively easy, because flat, first 80 kilometers become difficult; in favor of Vollering. Because she lacks the explosiveness of some of her competitors, she has to make the difference uphill, and the more tired everyone starts on the Flemish cobblestone hills in the final, the greater the chance that she can pull away.
Vollering can benefit from a strong team. Elise Chabbey had already shown that she was in top form by winning Strade Bianche. “If you have the strongest rider in the world in your team, it helps enormously to improve,” says the British rider after she finished fifteenth. It is also easy to ride for a leader like Vollering, teammate Amber Kraak (60th) adds a little later. “If you know she can win, you can push through your pain threshold just a little further.”
Until the Hotond at 26 kilometers before the finish, the work of Vollering’s team ensures a elimination race. Only an elite group of five women remains; Wiebes has long since disappeared from view.
Teeth biting
It has to happen on the Oude Kwaremont, one of the classic climbs full of cobblestones with a length of 2.2 kilometers and an average gradient of 4. Franziska Koch from FDJ-Suez accelerates again, and then it is Vollering’s turn. Without getting out of the saddle, she accelerates so fast that she creates a gap in a few seconds. Gritting her teeth, she stomps her way up, and at the top the decision is made.
The twenty-second gap only widens in the last sixteen kilometers; at the end there are forty. Vollering has plenty of time to celebrate her victory, and does so by bringing her hands together and bowing. “Namaste,” she explains afterwards, a bit emotionally. “Today is the International Day of Calm. I have been meditating every day since the beginning of this year and it helps me a lot in my competitions, so I wanted to do something with it.”
Vollering points to her head. “Here is where it all has to happen in the end.” Vollering has been good in recent years, but there was room for improvement. Although Vollering finished last year as number 1 in the world rankings and won the Vuelta d’Espana, Strade Bianche and the European Championships, she failed to achieve her big goals in the past two seasons: winning the Tour de France (she finished second twice) and the world title.
This year she is back at the top again. “That is why this victory feels very special,” says Vollering. “This is the first time that I have fully committed to this race and that the entire team was built around me. To be able to finish it right away is really nice.”
