Demi Vollering surprised even herself when she stormed over the finish line on the stage 3 time trial at the Tour de France Femmes with the fastest time to claim the victory and take the yellow jersey, enjoying a special moment in front of her fans, family and loved ones out to cheer for her on home soil in Rotterdam.
The emotions of winning the stage and donning the yellow leader's jersey in a race she won last year were evident as she stood on the podium with red eyes and tears streaming down her cheeks. Even through tears, Vollering appeared to be enjoying every moment of this Dutch Grand Départ.
But speaking with the media in quieter moments following the city's celebrations, Vollering, who has never shied away from expressing her feelings after races, said she believed that showing her emotions was part of what makes her a strong athlete.
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"First of all, I've realized how special all this is for women's sports in general, but to have so many loved ones at the side of the road. I'm a pretty sensitive person. I go with the moment and I'm really feeling. I do everything based on feeling," Vollering said.
"This year, I say, 'emotion is my power'. I always put all my emotions into the sport. I train with my feelings, I race with my feelings, so I think that this is my power. I've tried to put it away because there are a lot of people don't like to see it, because [they believe] you should show that you are strong in sports, but I think that sport is emotion for me.
"You work so hard toward goals and have so many people around you who support you and dedicate so much to you. I think that sports is emotion, so why not show it. For me, it comes out. A lot of people feel it, but you may not see it properly. But, for me, you just see it."
Vollering said she often practices meditation to help guide her feelings and to connect with both body and mind, which she believed, in turn, helps with her overall performance in cycling.
"It's about getting in the zone and getting into those feelings because that makes me strong. I become one with my body. We as people sometimes [connect] too much with only our heads, and we sleepwalk through the day," Vollering said.
"If you do a tough sport, I think it is important to get a good connection with the body, too, so you will see me breathing in and out while on the bike, just to become one with my body and get that good feeling, the flow, this is what I try to reach in meditation. It is to know myself, so that I can give it everything and really go through the pain and find that flow."
'I didn't see this coming'
Vollering went into the stage believing that the 6.3km individual time trial was better suited to the sprinters like Charlotte Kool (Team dsm-firmenich PostNL). She crossed the finish line with the fastest time of 7 minutes, 25 seconds, beating time trial world champion Chloé Dygert (Canyon-SRAM) by three seconds.
"I didn't see this coming, so I don't know, I really had no idea that I could do this today, so I'm surprised, actually," Vollering said.
She revealed that her only goal for the first three stages was to get through them safely before turning her attention to stage 4 to Liège and the mountainous stage 7 to La Grand Bornand and stage 8 to Alpe d'Huez. A similar approach netted her the yellow jersey on the Col du Tourmalet last year.
"The first days were just days that I needed to survive, and I wanted to enjoy it," she said. "The Tourmalet was the stage last year where I needed to do it. Here, I had no expectations at all. I wasn't even thinking of the podium. It was a strange day. I cannot believe it yet."
Once the afternoon time trial had started and the first few riders finished their efforts, SD Worx-Protime Director Anna van der Breggen said she knew it was a good one for Vollering.
"I'm not surprised. I was hoping for it. I did the recon with Demi today; we always do that. I like to go on the bike to feel how the circuit is, and I said straight away that it would be good for her," said Van der Breggen.
"Demi has a good punch, and technically, she can go fast through the corners. What is the difference between the sprinters? It's a short distance, but I think they make so much lactate on the bridge and on some parts where Demi can really go full afterward. You see always with Demi that her finish is always so strong."
Vollering now has the yellow jersey, albeit a little earlier than she expected in the eight-stage race. She said that with the help of her teammates, SD Worx-Protime will do their best to defend the jersey all the way to Alpe d'Huez on Sunday.
"The point was to take it a little bit later in the week, and I'm surprised that I have the yellow jersey now," she said. "It's up to the other teams to take it from our team now, so it's nice that I have it, but we will see. For sure, we will try our best to defend it to the very end."
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