The curtain may have only just fallen on a notably successful 2025 season for Demi Vollering, but the Dutch star says she is already looking ahead to a new series of challenges in 2026, amongst them the Tour de France Femmes, one of the few major goals of the year she was unable to conquer.
Vollering rounded out her debut season with FDJ-Suez with a memorable win in the European Championships road race, prior to taking second in her last event of the year, the Tre Valli Varesine in Italy. But with wins also coming earlier in 2025 in the Volta de la Comunitat Valenciana, Strade Bianche, the Vuelta España Femenina and Itzulia Women, there was certainly plenty for the 28-year-old to celebrate over the last nine months of racing.
Nobody's season goes 100% to plan and losing the Tour de France Femmes to Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike) was one of the main setbacks. The World Championships road race where the Dutch and other major teams underestimated the strength of the earlier breaks and Vollering ended up seventh was another time when things definitely didn't go to plan.
But as Vollering told L'Équipe in an interview earlier this week, those defeats will simply serve as motivation for next year's big goals.
"I think that even if I hadn't become European Champion, if you look at Strade, the Vuelta, all my podiums, it's been a superb season," she said.
"Of course, I'm a winner, there are always things that can be improved. So obviously both the Tour and the Worlds are on my mind, I would have liked to succeed in both."
"But that's sport, [not always winning] is what makes things more beautiful, too. If I manage to do that [win] in the future, it'll make those moments more special."
She confirmed that in 2026 the hunt for a rainbow jersey and a repeat of her 2023 Tour de France Femmes title "are both hugely motivating. To be in great form in the Tour is already one of the most exciting things to come. I love the build-up to the season [too], those first races of the year where you're super happy to be back competing. I'm already looking forward to it."
This year the racing dynamic was notably impacted by the considerable number of transfers during the off-season, including Vollering's to FDJ, as well as the return of Pauline Ferrand-Prévot to road racing.
While Vollering said the French star's comeback was an extra motivation, saying any extra competition was always beneficial, she also pointed out that in 2026 she will have become more used to racing with FDJ-Suez and that there was margin for progression on her own account, too.
"Any strong rider, no matter who they are, pushes me to improve," she told L'Équipe, "So that's automatically a good thing."
As for where she could get better in 2026, Vollering said "in quite a few things."
"It'll already be easier as it'll be my second year in the team, it was a novelty having everybody [in FDJ] there to work for me.
"We all know each other a lot better, that'll help and I really feel like I've found my place [in the team]. I was really looking forward to the recon day in the Worlds, because I knew I would get a chance to meet up with my [trade] teammates, whom I hadn't seen for quite some time. When you have that kind of feeling, that means you're having a good time."
While she agreed that her great condition at the Europeans was one landmark moment, she also pointed to Strade Bianche as another high point of her season given how well the team had worked together to set her up for the win.
"It was a special moment," she said.
She concluded the interview by paying tribute to one of her youngest teammates, Frenchwoman Célia Gery, who took a notable victory in the U23 Worlds road race in Kigali.
"I've never ridden with her in a race, but I hope that's the case in the future," Vollering said about the 19-year-old. "She's incredible, from the moment she gets on the bike, she's a killer. I love that kind of mentality.
"She's really talented and I hope she'll continue to progress. But in fact I'm already convinced she will, because she's a born winner."
