It's no secret that in the past, the Tour de France Femmes has been a race of mixed emotions for Demi Vollering (FDJ United-Suez).
She's experienced both the highs of winning the yellow jersey and the lows of watching it ride away from her, and has always worn her heart on her sleeve, be it joy, disappointment, stress, or pure determination.
The image of her pointing at her temple as she won atop Alpe d'Huez but just narrowly failed to claim the GC lead encompassed focus, happiness and anguish all in one, and is emblematic of the way Vollering has never tried to hide her emotions.
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Though she's finished on the podium in every edition, the prevailing feeling of the last two years has perhaps been more about pressure to repeat that 2022 win, and sometimes frustration that she hasn't done that yet. It's fair to say that she hasn't always seemed cool, calm and collected at the Tour.
But as she prepares to take on her fifth edition, starting in Lausanne in her adopted home country of Switzerland, calm is exactly what Vollering exudes. Surrounded by media and fans, she seems to be taking it all in her stride, feeling at home and sure of herself.
"I think now what has changed mostly is that I come quite calm into this Tour de France," she said on Friday afternoon.
"I don't have the feeling that I need to save my season, for example, on this Tour because I've won already so many beautiful races, and I've really enjoyed this whole season with the whole team. We did such a great beginning of the season already."
Her successes so far are indeed manifold, with a list of wins in 2026 that most would be happy to record across their entire career: Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Tour of Flanders, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, a maiden Giro d'Italia Women title. But there's also the simple element of growing older and indeed wiser – now 29, Vollering is a world away from the prodigious 25-year-old who came to challenge Annemiek van Vleuten in 2022.
"So I think for that, this season is already very, very successful. For sure, that's helpful," she continued. "But also you just grow one year older, you know? You get a bit more calm and everything. You've seen and and and learned so much on the way, so that you also take that into your backpack. You just grow every year a bit more into a more adult person."
There's no escaping that there is expectation on her shoulders, both as a former winner, the reigning Giro champion, and indeed the leader of the biggest French team in the biggest French race, but she's harnessing that into a power, rather than a burden.
"I always like to think pressure is a privilege. It comes for a reason, so it's a good thing to have," she said. "But of course, it's also a very big motivation for myself to bring that yellow jersey to a French team. I love beautiful stories, and I would love to add these beautiful stories to my list."
The race's final, decisive stages may be still a week away, but the shape of this Tour means the fight for the yellow jersey is going to be on even earlier – there will be no waiting for the final three stages, as perhaps we have seen in previous editions.
Stage 4's time trial – which Vollering calls "a beautiful discipline" – will be the first serious GC stage, and a good chance for the Dutch rider to take a swipe at Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, but this Tour is challenging from the off, with even stage 1's uphill finish
For the GC contenders, the key will be being switched on from the get-go, but remembering the challenges that are still to come.
"It's of course always good to start a Tour in a good way and be in front. That's always the goal. But this Tour, it's every day so hard," Vollering said.
"Towards the end, there's still so many opportunities – even the last day is going to be super hard – so I think, like what we showed in the Giro, that still everything can change on the last day, for example. So you should never give up or be unmotivated. I think it's going to be a fight until the very, very end."
If her victory in 2023 and her narrow loss in 2024 are anything to go by, Demi Vollering certainly knows something about fighting until the very end. She will just be hoping that this year, the emotions that are bound to pour out next Sunday evening are of joy, not disappointment.
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