Neither Lotte Kopecky or Demi Vollering were prioritized - "We wanted to keep them both" SD Worx manager assures

Team SD Worx - Protime have been dominating the women's field in recent years but this may be cut short ever so slightly in 2025. Although they no longer have to battle against Annemiek van Vleuten, they will have to against Demi Vollering who is confirmed to be leaving the team at the end f the season.

"We want to keep Demi in our team. She’s the best rider in the world and we’re very happy with her. We have the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 in our team and that’s pretty difficult but the goal was to keep Lotte and Demi together," Erwin Janssen, the team's general manager, told Cyclingnews. "We saw last year how good they are together and how strong. We did it at the same time, and gave them both an offer. It was the priority to keep them both. It wasn’t that we wanted Lotte or Demi. We wanted to keep them both."

The team seemingly continues to have the financial resources to keep it's four star riders at the time being, even if the budget demands increase. This week the team revealed that the offer for Demi Vollering was not accepted and the pressure to keep it's leaders did not ultimately work. "We were negotiating for around eight or nine months with Demi and her management. We are in the season and we need to look forward to the future and which future riders are staying with us, so then we made an ultimatum last offer and, in our opinion, it was a really good offer but we now know how the market is," Janssen continued.

An offer of reportedly €1 million a season has been made to Vollering from UAE Team ADQ, which would - if confirmed - be the first millionaire contract in women's cycling history. "Sometimes it’s really crazy but the offer we made was pretty good and then we said it was an ultimatum because we needed to go on. Her management didn’t give the go for that and that meant for us that they didn’t want to go on with the team."

It sparked quite a lot of interest, specially as the team itself shared a message on social media confirming the departure, instead of keeping the topic private. A lot can still be achieved, but the Tour de France Femmes champion is set to depart the Dutch team at the end of 2024. However until then she will continue to have the team's confidence and leadership opportunities.

"It’s a little bit difficult, like yesterday in the media but if we look back at last year, and the last years together with Demi in the team, we were happy with her and she was happy with us. We trust her and they all want to win and stay as the number one in the world. I’m fully convinced that we’re going to do that again."