"That rivalry makes women's cycling beautiful" - Experts share excitement for Demi Vollering vs Lotte Kopecky & Anna van der Breggen in 2025

The 2025 women's World Tour season has become one of the most highly anticipated in a long time. A big reason for this is the blockbuster transfer of Demi Vollering from Team SD Worx - Protime to FDJ - Suez and the subsequent verbal sparring in the press between the Dutch star and her former teammates.

In Vollering's absence, Team SD Worx - Protime have turned to world champion Lotte Kopecky and returning legend Anna van der Breggen to lead the fight against their former star. In the opinion of ex-pro turned Sporza expert Ine Beyen, the rivalry of Vollering vs Kopecky & Van der Breggen is one that could define women's cycling for the foreseeable future.

"Kopecky is doing things completely differently this year," Beyen notes to Sporza, examining Kopecky's delayed start to the season, designed to hopefully peak for the 2025 Tour de France Femmes. "It's not that she's completely retraining as a climber. She's just focusing on it a bit more now. Although I think her choices are daring. A few weeks ago she did not participate in the Volta Femenina de la Comunitat Valenciana, while the competition was already there."

In Spain, Vollering and Van der Breggen did go to battle though. According to Beyen's Sporza colleague Ruben van Gucht, the choice to Kopecky to avoid an immediate battle was a wise one. "If Kopecky had started there and gotten a slap on the wrist, the papers would have been full again," he counters. "While she might not have been in optimal shape, which she didn't want either."

As mentioned though, at the Tour de France Femmes later this year, Kopecky won't be SD Worx only potential challenger to Vollering. "A woman like Anna van der Breggen doesn't come back to play servant. And there's nothing wrong with that. If you're good enough to win, then you're allowed to," says Van Gucht. "But I do think that it is better for Kopecky and the pressure on her if you can start the Tour with an equal leader. That is better than having to solve everything on your own."

And the underlying tension between Vollering and her former teammates only serves to make the battle all the more interesting. "I would still like to have a conversation with someone from the team who can share information from behind the scenes," Van Gucht comments. "They themselves have always denied that there was anything wrong. The contact was pleasant. Maybe that is the case and we are making it bigger, but I would like to know."

"After the divorce, there have been some jabs in the press," adds Beyen in conclusion. "They can now say more about what was on their minds at the time and that rivalry makes women's cycling beautiful."