'No dependency on Demi' – Could the wider Vollering effect help FDJ-SUEZ to win another Grand Tour at the Giro d'Italia Women?

One of the longest-running outfits in the women's peloton, FDJ-SUEZ have always been about goals that are as sustainable as they are ambitious. They've spent two decades growing into one of the top teams in the peloton, and the next part of their development is bold yet clear: win all three Grand Tours and five major Classics in 2028.

It's a goal that the FDJ team manager made clear at the start of 2024, and signing Demi Vollering last winter was a key part of that, but it was still intended as a long-term, sustainable plan.

However, with Vollering winning the Vuelta a España in May, and a strong duo in Évita Muzic and Juliette Labous about to race the Giro d'Italia, the question must be asked: could FDJ-SUEZ actually already win three Grand Tours in 2025?

Of course, the Tour de France Femmes is still a month away, and there's super tough competition at this year's Giro, so it's really too early to seriously think about that happening, with only one Grand Tour down, but what's interesting is not so much the answer, but just the fact the question is even being asked. This time last year, it wouldn't have even been on the table – now it is.

A huge part of that change is, of course, the arrival of Vollering, but with the Dutch rider not going to the Giro, it's also about how she has changed the team, even when she is not there.

In May, FDJ-SUEZ had their first-ever taste of winning a Grand Tour when Vollering triumphed in Spain, but this next week in Italy will be a different ask, and an important test of the sustainable, broad plans FDJ have been laying.

"It will be good exercise and another step for the team to race like this without Demi. We want that, to have no dependency on Demi," FDJ-SUEZ general manager Stephen Delcourt told Cyclingnews ahead of the Giro.

That dependency on Vollering, or how the team might shape itself and its ambitions with such a big star in the equation, has been something that Delcourt and his team have been thinking and talking about for months now.

"We anticipated a lot, because when we announced Juliette, after we had announced Demi's signing, it was a big question. Externally, all the journalists asked me 'how is it possible to have three leaders with three individual ambitions' et cetera," Delcourt explained.

His hope at the time – and what he proposed to the other riders he signed – was that the Vollering tide would lift all boats.

"I also discussed a lot with Juliette, because Juliette signed before Demi, to explain why it's important to have Demi, why if you want to improve individually, you need Demi, and that the opportunity to sign Demi is a really good opportunity for you too. I spoke a lot in the same way with Évita. We went to California together in November, because we have a lot to do with Specialized in the US, and we started to discuss a lot about that. It was never just Évita or just Demi or just Juliette."

That idea seems to be something that the riders have bought into, not just when they signed for the team, but also in the way they've raced so far this season, with Muzic and Labous consistently putting in MVP performances for their leader, and Vollering doing the same for her teammates when the time comes. It's an ethos and bond that Delcourt praised.

"If they want to win, they need to race together. If Juliette and Évita want to win more, they need to work with Demi and use Demi. Because everybody is focused on Demi, so they have a lot of opportunity," he said.

"And, they start also to connect individually together. We did the same with the sports directors and everyone on camp, because we wanted a special link together. I don't push to tell them 'you need to be friends' but for the human part, it works because they are all special women with the same ethics and the same personal values."

Vollering herself has also been instrumental in building that culture of teamwork, and making it clear that the work she benefits from will always be repaid without question.

"When you say to Demi, 'please work for her' or 'take the lead in the sprint,' she always says yes, she doesn't hesitate to say yes on the radio, she's always happy to participate in the collective way. She's always the first to say 'we go as a team' and to create something for the group."

The Giro will be the next big test to see how Muzic and Labous fare as leaders in their own right, but so far, Delcourt sees only benefits for the French riders that have bounced off of Vollering so far this season.

"Juliette arrived from DSM with a different experience – there she was the unique leader, and she had all the pressure on her, but now with Demi and Évita she can share the pressure, and she naturally now will be the leader, but more the captain leader, because she has the instinct about the race.

"She has not a lot of emotions like Demi, she is really different about that, but it's like they complete each other. And Évita is a pure talent, and she can learn with Juliette and Demi on different points."

Lessons from the Vuelta

As well as the culture Delcourt has been cultivating at FDJ, the team will go into the Giro with concrete lessons learnt about how to win a Grand Tour, something they'd never done before this year.

Despite winning, it was far from a perfect week in Spain for the French team, who wanted to win the opening TTT but instead suffered a crash for Vittoria Guazzini, and then lost other key teammate Loes Adegeest on stage 3, and had to work hard for the win, even if they started as the favourites.

"There were a lot of signs that the planets were not aligned for this Vuelta, but we came back step by step, and when we arrive in the mountains, we rode as a team, with a plan," Delcourt recalled.

"Évita and Juliette took the lead in the mountains in Burgos, and we placed Demi in a good place at a good moment, and Demi was able to finish off the plan. From that, we learnt a lot. It's never finished in a Grand Tour. We need to always be focused on the goal, to work together, to focus on the dynamic, and to focus on how we need to work on every stage to not lose time and to create the gap to the others.

"We arrive at the Giro with all these conclusions. That it's never finished."

They also got to learn the form and current racing style of some of the riders who will be their rivals at the Giro, which – in a year where the team and rider dynamics in the peloton have shifted so dramatically – will be an asset they have that other riders, such as Elisa Longo Borghini who skipped the Vuelta, won't have.

"It was a good exercise with a really good Marlen Reusser, with a really good Anna van der Breggen, so the first step was really, really good," Delcourt said.

Giro ambitions: 'We're not here to lie'

Naturally, without Vollering, FDJ will go into the Giro with different ambitions and different expectations. They're not as bullish as they might have been prior to the Vuelta, where they wanted to take the red jersey on day one and keep it to the end, but they're also not going to pretend that they're not going to the race to aim at the win.

"We are always playing, but in fact, you never know because we never know the level of the other teams and the other contenders and how a Grand Tour can happen. We are really ambitious, for sure – we're not here to lie," Delcourt said. "When I read [SD Worx-Protime saying] 'we're going to the Giro without big ambitions for the classification' with Van der Breggen and Kopecky, for me it's impossible to write that.

"How can you go to a Grand Tour without ambitions to win? Okay, if you're a small team, but when we have Juliette Labous – she was on the podium of the Giro, top five in the Tour de France – and Évita who was fourth in the last Tour de France and able to win a mountain stage in the Vuelta, then it's really obvious to go to the Giro for the pink. We are not the favourites, for sure, but have two cards and a strong team around them, and we want to target and in the end arrive in Imola with the best general classification possible."

Given Muzic and Labous' previous successes in Grand Tours, and the general step up that FDJ have made this year, that 'best result possible' could absolutely be a win or a podium. Then, with Demi Vollering still the favourite for the Tour de France, the possibility of a triple could really be on.

For Delcourt, his thinking around the Giro is balancing a line between thinking about the long-term plan and also targeting a top result, which they know they're capable of.

"The Vuelta was the first target, and we won with Demi, and now it's another step: how can we win a Grand Tour without Demi?" he said. "With Évita and Juliette, we have two cards. I think we are not the favourites on paper, because if we analyse the last performances of Marlen Reusser, and also the big team of SD Worx with Van der Breggen and Kopecky, and the last winner Longo Borghini, it can be really hard to win.

"But we are really confident, and we also work for the future. If we have an opportunity to win with Juliette or Évita this season, it will be really perfect, but we know that maybe we need more time, it's another step for the team, and we have a long-term plan for them. We want to try something."

What's more important than winning, however, is that FDJ, Muzic and Labous take the next step in their development, and confirm to themselves – and the outside world – that it doesn't all have to be about one star rider.

"The Giro will be another step for the team," Delcourt said. "We are ambitious, but we know that we need to work a lot, because when we have Demi, it's more easy, but now it's time for Évita and Juliette to do it without her."

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