23/01/2024

Demi Vollering aware of her new status in pro cycling: "I will probably be the rider who most girls want to beat"

Demi Vollering was the star of the women's peloton in the 2023 season. Having won the Tour de France Femmes and many other races throughout the season, she enters 2024 as the leading figure for the mountainous stage-races.

"...In the coming season, I will probably be the rider who most girls want to beat. So this is again, something different. And I need to see how this feels in the races and how that goes," Vollering tells Cyclingnews. "I think I'm growing but the others are also growing. And this is also nice. In women's cycling, you see a lot that the level is going up, up, up, up. So you never know."

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The 27-year old still has plenty reasons that she can add to her palmarès, and with Team SD Worx - Protime she has very real chances of doing so. Her main rivals may even turn out to be some of her teammates, such as Lotte Kopecky who topped her at the World Championships. The Tour de France Femmes however will likely be her biggest goal, and she has special motivation to perform this upcoming summer.

"For me, it helps a lot that the Tour de France starts this year in Holland. This will be so special for me that even if I'm tired after the Olympics I will have a lot of motivation to go to the Tour after that," she tells. "So I'm not so scared of this but that's just because I think the Tour de France will be not so difficult for me to find motivation for. But it's for sure a challenge because it's pretty fast after each other."

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All the main spring classics, including the cobbled and Ardennes, are on her schedule. This past spring she won Strade Bianche Donne, Dwars door Vlaanderen, Flèche Wallone and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. She will look to take more triumphs, but is unsure of what legs she will have at her season debut at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad.

"My winter was pretty busy. So maybe the feeling is not yet as good as last season in the winter. But then it's still January so I cannot say yet. You really feel in the first race how your form really is. But I think it's still going in the right direction and still going a little bit up. I hope so," Vollering concludes.