"That was the perfect decision" - Demi Vollering key to Netherlands' victory at European Championships

The Netherlands dominated the finale of the European Championships' women's race. After the fireworks began late on, the home team took advantage of their numbers to take the win with Mischa Bredewold, and Demi Vollering played a big role in ensuring no-one could've bridged across.

“I said to Lorena: stay stuck in Lotte [Kopecky] wheel and never get out, save yourself as much as possible. She did that well. It was up to me and Rie (Riejanne Markus, ed.) to keep everything under control and ensure that nothing crossed over to Mischa," Vollering told Wielerflits after the race. After Bredewold attacked with 9 kilometers to go, the Dutch rider covered several counter-attacks, specially those of Marlen Reusser to avoid anyone joining her teammate up front.

“Then Emma [Norsgaard] jumped away. Marlen [Reusser] deliberately let Emma ride, hoping that I would close it. And then of course she would launch another counterattack. Anyway, I figured that out. I'm not going to close the gap," she explains. "Then she just joins Mischa, but I already knew that that was going to be very difficult for her. Then Rie came next and decided that we would just ride at a pace. That was the perfect decision.”

Eventually the Dutch were so confident of the victory ahead that Vollering outright pushed the pace and led out the sprint for Lorena Wiebes in the final kilometers, despite that closing the gap to her other teammate up front. However that ultimately didn't prove to be a problem as Wiebes then sprinted to second, Vollering closed her season with a 10th spot.

“But you always have to look back at something like that. Sometimes you feel so exhausted during a race and you don't realize everything. But this group just feels really good together, we just feel very good about each other. That is wonderful to see. And we just become one and two here, which is of course wonderful.”