"At one point I was really sleeping on the bike because I was really done" - Demi Vollering settles for bronze at Gravel World Championships

Demi Vollering missed out on the rainbow jersey in the elite women’s race at the UCI Gravel Worlds with the WorldTour pro acknowledging just how tough the race had been for her and her competitors.  

The Dutch team certainly dominated the race in terms of numbers with three riders finishing inside the top five but under relentless pressure from a highly motivated Italy, and then Niewiadoma’s class, Vollering was forced to settle for the bronze medal.

"It was hard. It was really hard. I enjoyed the landscape in the recon but today I didn't see so much. At one point I was really sleeping on the bike because I was really done," Vollering said in the post-race press conference in Veneto, Italy.

"At one point I thought if I crash here I'll just stay on the ground because I was completely done. I had trouble eating so that made it also really hard and a big sufferfest for me. But I think it was a really nice race. It was really hard. The Italians went from the beginning full gas which made it really hard in the final. You could see that everyone was done. On the last lap, the first climb, Kasia went, and I couldn’t follow."