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Demi Vollering
Dutch cyclist (born 1996) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Adriana Geertruida "Demi" Vollering (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈdeːmi ˈvɔlərɪŋ]; born 15 November 1996) is a Dutch professional racing cyclist who rides for UCI Women's WorldTeam FDJ–Suez.[3]
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Considered one of the greatest riders of her generation,[4][5] she has achieved major successes in both one-day classics and stage races.
In the monuments, she has won two editions of Liège–Bastogne–Liège, in 2021 and 2023.[6] The latter completed an "Ardennes triple" of winning the Amstel Gold Race, La Flèche Wallonne and Liège–Bastogne–Liège in the same season, becoming only the second woman in history to achieve this feat.[7]
She won the Tour de France in 2023 and has twice won the general classification at La Vuelta, in 2024 and 2025.[6]
In 2023, she topped the year-end UCI world rankings and won the prestigious Vélo d'Or.[8][9]
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Early life
Adriana Geertruida Vollering, known by the roepnaam "Demi", was born in Pijnacker, Netherlands on 15 November 1996. She is the oldest of four siblings, including fellow cyclist Bodine Vollering who made her professional debut with VolkerWessels Cycling Team in 2025.[10][11]
Following in the footsteps of her flower-growing family, Vollering initially worked as a florist and earned a qualification in Floral Design.[12]
Until 2019, Vollering combined cycling with speed skating, competing nationally in the Netherlands.[13] As a youngster, speed skating was her primary sport, and it was only in 2017, after a cycling holiday to the Ardennes that her partner convinced her to focus on the sport full-time.[10]
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Professional career
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2019–2020: breakthrough
2019
Having raced in 2018 as an amateur with the domestic SwaboLadies.nl team, Vollering signed her first professional contract in 2019 with Dutch team Parkhotel Valkenburg.[14]
Her first spring campaign as a professional cyclist was a successful one, with top-10 finishes at the Amstel Gold Race, La Flèche Wallonne and a first monument podium at Liège–Bastogne–Liège.[15]
In May 2019, Vollering achieved her first professional victory: a 2.7km prologue at the Festival Elsy Jacobs in Luxembourg, taking the leader's jersey in the process.[16] She followed this up in October 2019, with a second pro win at the Giro dell'Emilia, beating Elisa Longo Borghini in a two-rider sprint at the top of the Madonna di San Luca climb.[17]
2020
In the COVID-19 affected 2020 season, Vollering continued to impress in WorldTour races, coming third at both La Course by Le Tour de France and La Flèche Wallonne, in addition to top-10 results on the cobbles at Gent–Wevelgem and the Tour of Flanders.[18]
Following two successful seasons with Parkhotel Valkenburg, it was announced that Vollering would be joining UCI WorldTeam SD Worx from the 2021 season onwards.[19]
2021–2024: SD Worx, Tour de France and stage race dominance
2021
Vollering started the season strongly with top-10 finishes at Strade Bianche and the Tour of Flanders.[20] She then finished as runner-up at De Brabantse Pijl, celebrating as she crossed the line only to find out she had been pipped by Ruth Winder's late bike throw.[21]
In the Ardennes classics, Vollering started the week with an impressive second place to Marianne Vos at the Amstel Gold Race, followed by a tenth place finish at La Flèche Wallonne.[20] Vollering then took her first career monument victory at Liège–Bastogne–Liège, winning the sprint from a five-rider group containing Annemiek van Vleuten, Elisa Longo Borghini, Kasia Niewiadoma and teammate Anna van der Breggen.[22]
At what was to be the final edition of La Course by Le Tour de France, Vollering took her second WorldTour victory of the season, winning the sprint in Landerneau from an eight-rider group.[23]
In July, Vollering took her first podium in major tour at the Giro in Italy, finishing in third place behind her teammates Anna van der Breggen and Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio. This included second place finishes on the stage 4 time trial to Cascata del Toce and the stage 9 summit finish up Monte Matajur.[24]
Vollering competed in the road race at the delayed 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, placing 25th. She also achieved top-10 finishes in the UEC European Championships and UCI World Championships road races.[20]
In October, Vollering won her first career stage race at The Women's Tour. After helping teammate Amy Pieters claimed victory on stage 1, Vollering took the leader's jersey by winning the stage 3 by winning 16.6km stage 3 time trial in Atherstone, putting more than a minute into her competitors in the process.[25]
2022
Vollering had a strong spring classics campaign, winning De Brabantse Pijl, coming second at Omloop het Nieuwsblad and the Amstel Gold Race, and taking the third spot on the podium at La Flèche Wallonne and Liège–Bastogne–Liège.[26]
In the inaugural edition of Itzulia Women, Vollering won all three stages and the general classification.[27] The following week at the Vuelta a Burgos, Vollering took victory in the final stage to Lagunas de Neila, finishing third overall behind Juliette Labous and Évita Muzic.[28]
Vollering's impressive results meant she went into the first edition of the rebooted women's Tour de France as one of the two big favourites alongside Annemiek van Vleuten.[29] She finished the race as the runner-up to Van Vleuten after consecutive second place finishes on stages 7 and 8 in the Vosges mountains. In the process, she won the iconic polka dot jersey as the leading rider in the mountains classification.[30]
In September, Vollering added her fourth stage race podium of the season, finishing in third place overall at the Challenge by La Vuelta.[31]
2023
The 2023 season saw Vollering complete her rise to superstardom with one of the most dominant years in cycling history.[32]
In March, Vollering won her first Strade Bianche on the white gravel roads of Tuscany in a photo finish ahead of teammate Lotte Kopecky. The race was noted for a dramatic incident with 16 kilometres to go, when a horse ran onto the course in front of Vollering, briefly holding her up on the narrow stretch of road.[33]
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Vollering added a second victory of the season in her next race at Dwars door Vlaanderen, before finishing as runner-up to her teammate Kopecky in the first monument of the season at the Tour of Flanders.[34] Another second place followed at De Brabantse Pijl, as Vollering was beaten in a sprint in Overijse by Silvia Persico.[35]
The following week, Vollering became just the fourth rider in history (after men Davide Rebellin and Philippe Gilbert, and former teammate Anna van der Breggen) to win the "Ardennes triple" of the Amstel Gold Race, La Flèche Wallonne and Liège–Bastogne–Liège in the same season.[7] At the Amstel Gold Race, Vollering cemented another SD Worx one-two ahead of Lotte Kopecky, soloing to victory in the final kilometres after a late attack over the top of the Cauberg.[36] A few days later at La Flèche Wallonne, Vollering attacked from a reduced group at the bottom of the Mur de Huy to take a dominant victory.[37] Vollering completed the Ardennes triple in Liège by outsprinting Elisa Longo Borghini in a two-up finish.[38]
Vollering's electric form did not slow as racing moved to Spain after the early-season classics. At La Vuelta, she took the leader's red jersey after winning stage 5 to the Mirador de Peñas Llanas in Riaza.[39] She would then lose the jersey on stage 6 in a controversial incident. Having stopped for a nature break and not yet returned to the peloton, Movistar and their leader Annemiek van Vleuten upped the pace in a section of crosswinds, splitting the peloton and leaving Vollering and her SD Worx teammates chasing for the following 70 kilometres to the finish. She was able to limit her losses on the stage to one minute and four seconds but this meant losing the general classification lead to Van Vleuten heading into the final stage.[40] On stage 7, Vollering distanced Van Vleuten on the final climb to Lagos de Covadonga, winning the stage and securing ten bonus seconds. However, she was unable to overhaul the entirety of her deficit, ultimately finishing the race in second place, just nine seconds behind the winner Van Vleuten.[41]
In the following Spanish races, Vollering won the first two stages of Itzulia Women (making her the winner of the first five stages in the race's history), before taking second place on the final stage and finishing as runner-up to teammate Marlen Reusser in the general classification.[42] She then went one better at the Vuelta a Burgos, winning another two stages on her way to the overall race victory.[43]
In June, Vollering finished second to teammate Reusser in the general classification at the Tour de Suisse.[44] She then claimed her first career Dutch National Road Race Championship, launching an attack on the final lap of a hilly route around Sittard.[45]
At the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, it was once again Vollering and Van Vleuten who were expected to battle it out for the yellow jersey in a renewal of their blossoming rivalry.[46] Going into the final two stages, it was Vollering's SD Worx teammate Lotte Kopecky who held the race lead, with a 55-second lead over Van Vleuten and fellow contender Kasia Niewiadoma, with Vollering a further 12 seconds in arrears.[47] Stage 7 was a Pyrenean epic, and atop the Col d'Aspin with 30 kilometres remaining, only Vollering, Van Vleuten and Niewiadoma remained at the head of the race. Vollering and Van Vleuten marked each other profusely, allowing Niewiadoma to steal a march into the final climb up the legendary Col du Tourmalet. Yet it was Vollering who dealt the killer blow, launching an attack with 5.5km to go, and arriving through the mist atop the mythical mountain with an almost two-minute gap over second-placed Niewiadoma.[48] Wearing the yellow jersey on stage 8 in Pau, Vollering rode a strong time trial to finish in second place on the stage and secure her first major tour general classification victory.[49]
Following her Tour de France win, Vollering claimed the silver medal behind Lotte Kopecky at the UCI World Championships road race in Glasgow and later the bronze medal at the UCI Gravel World Championships in Veneto.[34] She also won a stage and the overall classification at the Tour de Romandie.[50]
Vollering's dominant season saw her top the year-end UCI world rankings and she was awarded the prestigious Vélo d'Or.[8][9]
2024
Following on from her annus mirabilis in 2023, Vollering went through the entire spring classics campaign without raising her arms in victory. She began her season at Omloop het Nieuwsblad with a sixth place finish, followed third place at Strade Bianche and eighth place at the Tour of Flanders, before rounding out the spring classics with back-to-back podium finishes as runner-up at La Flèche Wallonne and third place at Liège–Bastogne–Liège.[51]
Vollering quickly put to bed any doubts about her form, by dominating the Spanish stage racing block.[52][53] She took her first win of the season at La Vuelta on the stage 5 summit finish in Jaca, moving into the race leader's red jersey. She finished as runner up to Évita Muzic on the following stage to Laguna Negra, before taking another stage victory and securing the general classification on stage 8 to Valdesquí.[54] She followed this win up by winning a stage and the overall title at Itzulia Women, as well as two stages and the general classification at the Vuelta a Burgos.[51]
In June, Vollering continued her stage race dominance by winning three out of four stages and the general classification at the Tour de Suisse.[55]
Vollering was considered the red-hot favourite heading into the Tour de France in August.[56] She took a surprise win in the flat 6.3km individual time trial in Rotterdam on stage 3 to move into the yellow jersey before the race had even reached French soil.[57] The next day, she finished second to Puck Pieterse in a hilly stage that featured the same finale as Liège–Bastogne–Liège.[58] Vollering saw her luck change when the race entered France on stage 5. She came down in a mass crash with just 6 kilometres to go, causing her to lose one minute and 47 seconds in the general classification. Vollering slipped to ninth overall, one minute and 19 seconds behind the new yellow jersey wearer Kasia Niewiadoma.[59][60] Despite her injuries, Vollering remained in the race, entering the mountainous final stage with a deficit of one minute and 15 seconds to Niewiadoma. On the Col du Glandon, the first of two hors catégorie climbs, Vollering attacked from the peloton with Pauliena Rooijakkers, distancing Niewadoma. Although Rooijakkers herself had moved into the virtual lead of the race, she refused to work with Vollering in the valley as the chasing group ate into the gap and they came to the foot of the final climb up Alpe d'Huez just 43 seconds ahead over Niewidoma. With Vollering in visible discomfort from the injuries she had suffered a few days prior, she was nonetheless able to increase the gap to Niewiadoma. After closing down an attack by Rooijakkers with 2.5km to go, Vollering won the sprint for the stage win, taking ten bonus seconds to Rooijakkers' six, thus moving ahead of her in the general classification. However, it proved not enough, as Niewiadoma crossed the stage finish line one minute and one second back. Vollering finished the race in second place, a mere four seconds behind the winner.[61]
Upon returning to her home in Switzerland after the Tour de France, medical tests revealed that Vollering had in fact been riding with a fractured coccyx from the crash on stage 5.[62]
At the Tour de Romandie in September, in what was to be her final race for SD Worx, Vollering won the stage 2 summit finish at Vercorin and finished second overall behind her teammate Lotte Kopecky.[63]
Vollering closed out her season at the UCI Road World Championships in Zürich. She won the silver medal in the individual time trial, 16 seconds behind Grace Brown, and finished fifth in the road race.[51]
2025: move to FDJ–Suez
After four seasons with SD Worx, Vollering signed a two-year contract with French team FDJ–Suez, bringing Specialized and Nike with her as new sponsors.[64]
Vollering got off to an excellent start with her new team, winning stage 1 and the general classification of the Setmana Ciclista Valenciana in February.[65]
In the spring classics, Vollering finished third at Omloop Nieuwsblad before winning Strade Bianche for the second time in her career. Vollering also came fourth in the inaugural women's Milano–Sanremo, second in La Flèche Wallonne and third at Liège–Bastogne–Liège.[66]
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Major results
Road
- 2018
- 9th Overall Tour of Uppsala
- 2019
- 1st Giro dell'Emilia
- 1st Volta Limburg Classic
- 2nd Overall Grand Prix Elsy Jacobs
- 1st Prologue
- 3rd Liège–Bastogne–Liège
- 5th La Flèche Wallonne
- 5th Overall The Women's Tour
- 5th GP de Plouay
- 7th Amstel Gold Race
- 2020
- 3rd Overall Setmana Ciclista Valenciana
- 3rd La Course by Le Tour de France
- 3rd La Flèche Wallonne
- 7th Gent–Wevelgem
- 7th Tour of Flanders
- 2021
- 1st
Overall The Women's Tour
- 1st Stage 3 (ITT)
- 1st La Course by Le Tour de France
- 1st Liège–Bastogne–Liège
- 2nd Amstel Gold Race
- 2nd Brabantse Pijl
- 2nd Emakumeen Nafarroako Klasikoa
- UEC European Championships
- 3rd
Team relay - 5th Road race
- 3rd
- 3rd Overall Giro Rosa
- 3rd Overall Vuelta a Burgos
- 5th Tour of Flanders
- 5th Overall Holland Ladies Tour
- 5th Clasica Navarra
- 6th Strade Bianche
- National Championships
- 6th Time trial
- 9th Road race
- 7th Road race, UCI World Championships
- 10th La Flèche Wallonne
- 2022
- 1st
Overall Itzulia Women
- 1st
Points classification - 1st Stages 1, 2 & 3
- 1st
- 1st Brabantse Pijl
- 2nd Overall Tour de France
- 1st
Mountains classification
- 1st
- 2nd Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
- 2nd Amstel Gold Race
- 3rd Overall Vuelta a Burgos
- 1st
Mountains classification - 1st Stage 4
- 1st
- 3rd La Flèche Wallonne
- 3rd Liège–Bastogne–Liège
- 4th Overall Grand Prix Elsy Jacobs
- 7th Road race, UCI World Championships
- 10th La Flèche Wallonne
- 2023
- 1st
Overall UCI World Tour - 1st
Road race, National Championships - 1st Overall Tour de France
- 1st Stage 7
- 1st Overall Vuelta a Burgos
- 1st Mountains classification
- 1st Stage 2 & 4
- 1st
- 1st Overall Tour de Romandie
- 1st Stage 2
- 1st Liège–Bastogne–Liège
- 1st Amstel Gold Race
- 1st La Flèche Wallonne
- 1st Strade Bianche
- 1st Dwars door Vlaanderen
- 2nd
Road race, UCI World Championships - 2nd Tour of Flanders
- 2nd Brabantse Pijl
- 2nd Overall La Vuelta Femenina
- 1st Stages 5 & 7
- Held after Stage 5
- 2nd Overall Itzulia Women
- 1st
Mountains classification - 1st Stages 1 & 2
- 1st
- 10th Road race, UEC European Championships
- 2024
- 1st Overall La Vuelta Femenina
- 1st
Mountains classification - 1st Stages 5 & 8
- 1st
- 1st Overall Itzulia Women
- 1st Points classification
- 1st Stage 3
- 1st
- 1st Overall Vuelta a Burgos
- 1st Mountains classification
- 1st Points classification
- 1st Stages 2 & 4
- 1st
- 1st Overall Tour de Suisse
- 1st Points classification
- 1st Stages 1, 2 & 4
- 1st
- 2nd Overall Tour de France
- 1st Stages 3 (ITT) & 8
- Held after Stages 3–4
Combativity award Stage 8 & Overall
- UCI Road World Championships
- 2nd Time trial
- 5th Road race
- 2nd
- 2nd Brabantse Pijl
- 2nd La Flèche Wallonne
- 3rd Strade Bianche
- 3rd Liège–Bastogne–Liège
- 5th Time trial, Olympic Games
- 6th Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
- 2025
- 1st Overall La Vuelta Femenina
- 1st Mountains classification
- 1st Stages 5 & 7
- 1st
- 1st Overall Itzulia Women
- 1st Mountains classification
- 1st Stage 3
- 1st
- 1st
Overall Setmana Ciclista Valenciana
- 1st Stage 1
- 1st Strade Bianche
- 2nd La Flèche Wallonne
- 3rd Liège–Bastogne–Liège
- 3rd Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
- 4th Milan–San Remo
General classification results timeline
- Known as the Challenge by La Vuelta from 2020 to 2022
- Known as the Boels Ladies Tour until 2020
- Known as the Ladies Tour of Norway until 2021
Classics results timeline
Major championships results timeline
Gravel
- 2023
- 3rd
UCI World Championships
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References
External links
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