Demi Vollering under fire! Former Tour de France Femmes winner faces scrutiny ahead of important 2025: “Vollering is a typical hard rider, but not a cyclist”
Cycling
Demi Vollering, one of the most successful female cyclists of recent years, continues to make headlines both on and off the bike. The 28-year-old Dutch star, who won the Tour de France Femmes in 2023 and followed it up with a Vuelta victory in 2024, has recently come under scrutiny from prominent cycling commentators on Eurosport's Kop over Kop.
Bobbie Traksel, a regular voice on the show, offered a critical take on Vollering’s tactical IQ, "Vollering is a typical hard rider, but not a cyclist. That may sound strange, because in my opinion she is the best cyclist in the world. But when it comes to the tactical part, the real cycling starts. It is not just riding very fast. She really has problems with the game. Especially if it is not guided by earphones, then it is simply over," said Traksel.
This perspective was echoed by fellow commentator Jan Hermsen, who questioned Vollering’s team dynamic and interpersonal skills.
"She wouldn't be my favourite teammate. When I sometimes see interviews of her. Athletes are assholes, but cycling has increasingly become a team sport. Then you also have to be able to function in a team," Hermsen stated.
Traksel also pointed out how Vollering's dominance can sometimes work against her in the peloton, "Because she is the best, nobody wants to continue cycling with her. Normally she can then ride away herself, but the level of competition has become higher. As a result, she will miss out on a lot this season," he explained.
In 2025, Vollering will begin a new chapter in her career as she joins FDJ-Suez after parting ways with Team SD Worx - Protime, a move that has raised eyebrows in the cycling community. Reflecting on her time at SD Worx, Hermsen added, "She has had a lot of run-ins at SD Worx. I don't know how well that is managed at FDJ."
She is the strongest and the strongest don't need no tactics. As soon as the road rises, she comes to the front and drops everybody
She appears as dominant among the women as Pogacar is in the men's peloton. But she doesn't appear to have even a basic understanding of racing tactics. Moreover, it seems like the entire field races against her, including her own team. This is odd, as she seems like a nice person in interviews, but something is clearly going on. If she just wants to go hard, she might do better switching to triathlon, or just running. It doesn't seem like she is going to figure out bike racing.
well she’s only been a pro for 4 years, and even without “figuring out” cycling yet she’s won the tour de france (twice), the vuelta, liége-bastogne-liége (twice), strade bianchi, amstel gold, fleche-wallone, dwars door vlaandren, and a bunch of individual stages. i agree that her undeveloped tactical IQ is a “ weakness” (obviously a byproduct of her enormous strength that has allowed her to get away with tactical blunders and still be a big winner), but there’s still time to change that. in the men’s side sometime like mathieu van der poel was still a bit of a tactical knucklehead as late as age 26 or so, and he was born into pro cycling. he finally got tired of blowing opportunities when he realized that they don’t present themselves all that often. vollering may come to the same conclusion. i hope so. greatness like she’s capable of would be a shame to squander to any unnecessary degree.
OCexile, you sound almost contradictory, "greatness that she is capable of" as if it's a question, when you also list all her accomplishments in just 4 years - that already seems kinda great to me! The question seems to be if she can keep this up, especially with a new team. She's a great rider to watch, that's for sure.
I get him completely, you can be great already but still far from what you could (have) achieve(d). Surprises aside, I think resultswise she’ll do just fine in the new team, after all she never really had to rely on one to get them.
I hope for the sake of others she doesn’t become an expert ;-) As OCexile has pointed out she’s capable enough of winning already. The others won’t be as tolerant of her as the men are of Pog if she starts sweeping everything up.
i have MASSIVE respect for vollering as an athlete. how can you not? but i do agree about the limits of her tactical and interpersonal skills. if she had both to the same degree as someone like kasia niewiadoma, she would end her career someday as one of the greatest cyclists of all time — male, female, whatever…
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- Yes, I get that but it wasn’t exactly a good comparison if you ask me, circumstances and competition were very different. Also crashing whilst staying up front is pretty different from crashing and being left behind.Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- Pidcock was riding at a hard enough pace until the sector where Pogacar made up something like 20 seconds in something like... 20 seconds. Pidcock was quite a bit ahead, and suddenly he wasn't. At that point, clearly he would get caught, so might as well get caught sooner and work together. That's just good cycling. (I think the point is, plenty of people win even after they've come down in a crash - Van der Poel crashed at the worlds and won, anyway, for example).RidesHills08-04-2025
- Great sprint, Ineos set him up at exactly the right time, they protected the corners through the turns, and he did the job he was supposed to do. Nice to see him win again.RidesHills08-04-2025
- When Vingo, Rogla, and Wout were all at the height of their powers, a sight to behold.mobk08-04-2025
- To quote the article: riders from Arkéa - B&B Hotels and a few others seized the moment to launch an attack, increasing the pace as Pogacar was briefly off the bike. Not coolmij08-04-2025
- I don’t think it was a matter of easing up. I think it was a matter of attacking. And MVDP said his team would respect similar situations. Perhaps not on the penultimate climb, but I believe they would. To accelerate is a jerk move.mij08-04-2025
- His basic attitude always has been (and we know age often reinforces inherent values), if I’m going down I’m going to try taking you with me.Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- I know it’s tradition and nice but to make the discussion more interesting, if an Arkea rider had driven up to tell Alpecin or UAE to ease off for Mozzato or Vauquelin having a P, would they have been as gentlemanly?Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- That’s probably about right although if they’d talked it over it would have been in all their interests to work together to chase Pog down because those 4 arriving at the finish in that scenario would have left all 4 with a chance of victory.Mistermaumau08-04-2025
- Exactly, that easily makes for a minute at the front. You don’t see Pog cracking often either (less often than MVDP even) but when he does it’s lights out and over too. This is completely normal and to be expected, at the level of competitiveness all these guys are they only crack once they’ve pushed beyond their manageable limit and there’s no coming back from that. When your rival forces you into the red to keep or catch up, it’s over, in that respect, well done to WVA who seems to be world champion in staying just outside the red for as long as he can.Mistermaumau08-04-2025