Lorena Wiebes predictably powered to a dominant stage victory to open this year's Tour de France Femmes on Saturday afternoon, and she wasn't the only Dutch racer happy with the day's outcome on the hilltop finish in Lausanne.
2023 champion and Wiebes' former SD Worx teammate, Demi Vollering, may not have added to her tally of three Tour stage wins. However, the FDJ United-SUEZ leader nonetheless started her GC challenge with a positive result, grabbing four bonus seconds as she took third place behind Wiebes and Kim Le Court-Pienaar.
Vollering has finished on the podium of every Tour to date, winning in 2023 and finishing in the runner-up spot in each of the past two editions. A duel with the reigning champion, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, is expected to headline this year's race, and Vollering is off to a good start, even if she admitted she wanted the win and yellow.
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"Of course, it would have been even better if it had ended differently. I would have wanted more. Uh, especially knowing that the ball was on the five-yard line. But to come back like this and to have these legs, I'm very happy with it," Vollering told assembled media, including Cyclingnews, after the stage.
"I certainly would have wanted to [take yellow], of course. But anyway, ultimately I already have a few seconds in the general classification, and I think this whole Tour is going to be like this.
"I just competed for the podium, and that just feels good too. Very different from last year, so that feels good."
At last year's Grand Départ in Brittany, the shoe was on the other foot for Vollering as she ceded three seconds to Ferrand-Prévot and 2024 winner Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney on a similarly hilly finish in Plumelec.
She'd end up losing the Tour by almost four minutes as Ferrand-Prévot romped clear of everybody in the Alps. But today's result – as well as a much improved lead-in to the race – signals that things might be different this week.
"The way things went for me this time, that does make a difference," Vollering said, referring to a less intense preparation period before heading to France.
She won the Giro d'Italia Women back in May, but took June off rather than racing the Volta a Catalunya and Tour de Suisse, as she did last year. Instead, the focus was on altitude training and getting the details right.
"I definitely didn't push myself as hard before going to altitude, which meant I was already more relaxed going into the camp," she said.
"I'd already completed a nice training block at home in Switzerland before going to altitude. And then, at the altitude camp, it was just a matter of dotting the i's and crossing the t's.
"Last year, I got sick in the Tour de Suisse, where I completely pushed myself to the limit and had to take far too long to recover. After that, it was into the altitude camp, and I felt like I had to catch up on everything, so to speak.
"Now it was just much more relaxed, putting the finishing touches to things, working on the details more, and maybe lighten things up a bit. Those kinds of details were what we could work on now, and that just didn't work out last year."
So Vollering's Tour preparation has improved, the initial results are promising, and the vibes are also up. She admitted, perhaps surprisingly, that she approached the Tour more with dread than excitement last summer.
"Last year, I would wake up every morning thinking, 'Shit, another morning closer to the Tour.' And now I woke up every morning feeling super motivated and thinking, 'Yes, I feel good, and I'm looking forward to it.'"
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