“Always putting the team first!” — Demi Vollering praises FDJ - Suez mentality as first season post-SD Worx comes to an end

After years spent as the figurehead of a powerhouse squad, Demi Vollering’s first season away from Team SD Worx - Protime was always going to be a test — of freedom, of leadership, and of faith in a new structure. Now, as her debut campaign with FDJ - Suez draws to a close, the Dutch star has reflected on what she calls “a fresh beginning” — one that reignited her sense of unity and purpose.

“Everything felt new, yet so familiar,” Vollering wrote on Instagram. “My goal at the start of the season? To be successful as a team, and I’m damn proud of how we did it.”

The words carry weight. In 2024, her final year with SD Worx-Protime, Vollering often appeared isolated in key races — forced to defend alone while rivals exploited numerical superiority. What she found at FDJ-Suez in 2025, by contrast, was a collective ethos she clearly relished.

“I’ve seen everyone stepping up, including myself,” she added. “We grew together as a close group, eager to become better versions of ourselves, and always putting the team first!”

The partnership paid immediate dividends. Vollering opened her new chapter with victory at the Setmana Ciclista Valenciana, before taking her first major target of the year at Strade Bianche, describing that Tuscan triumph as “maybe my favourite moment of the season.”

From there, her momentum barely faltered. She conquered La Vuelta Femenina for a second consecutive year, a result she said made her “proudest of how the girls stood behind me” through adversity. Overall wins followed at Itzulia Women and Volta a Catalunya, where team-mates Elise Chabbey and Loes Adegeest also claimed stage victories — underlining the collaborative dynamic Vollering praised.

Her Tour de France Femmes campaign ended in second overall, alongside team victory in the general classification and the mountains jersey for Chabbey — achievements that reflected how thoroughly FDJ-Suez had built around their new leader.

If 2025 marked a personal rebirth, its final flourish confirmed it. Vollering soloed to the European Championships road race title in October, calling it “the cherry on the cake of a beautiful season.” It was a fitting conclusion to a year in which she also claimed bronze at the World Championships time trial in Kigali and top-tens across almost every major race she entered.

For Vollering, the success was as much emotional as athletic — proof that leaving the most dominant women’s team in cycling could lead not to isolation, but to growth. “We’ll come back next year to fight even harder! I can’t wait!” she signed off.

As she looks to 2026, Vollering does so not just as one of the sport’s most complete riders, but as the fulcrum of a revitalised FDJ-Suez squad whose collective ambition now rivals that of her former employers.