Demi Vollering avoids a horse to take photo-finish win at Strade Bianche women

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Demi Vollering (Team SD Worx) has won the women's Strade Bianche in a photo-finish sprint against her own teammate Lotte Kopecky. The two riders joined forces on the final gravel sector, Le Tolfe, when Kopecky attacked out of a group of favourites and bridged to Vollering who had attacked a few kilometres earlier.

Together, they closed a one-minute gap on Kristen Faulkner (Team Jayco-AlUla) who had gone solo with 32 km to go, reaching the US rider on the steep Via Santa Caterina and going past her.

Vollering was first to the corner at the top of the climb, Kopecky went past 300 metres from the finish, but Vollering came back on the Piazza del Campo and won the teammates' sprint with a well-timed bike throw.

Vollering learned that she had won from a TV interviewer, and went on to thank her teammates.

“It was a crazy final. We did very well as a team, the other girls rode super strong today and did everything, Mischa, Niamh, Anna Shackley, Elena, they all did a super good job and then the final playing with Lotte was really cool. I attacked and felt like ‘this is the moment’ and just went how we discussed because this was the plan, too. Then, suddenly, Lotte was with me, and that was very nice, it’s just teammates together and then you can also go a bit deeper together,” Vollering said in the moment.

Having had the victory sink in for a few minutes, Vollering’s emotions over this victory eventually came through, her voice cracking as she thanked her teammate Chantal van den Broek-Blaak.

“I always really, really liked this race but always worked for my teammates here. It was also always very early always for me, and I didn’t have so strong belief in myself yet. This year, Chantal told me that I really needed to believe in this race, so I’m really thankful for her and the team because they really gave me confidence that I could do this. That really helped me to go into this race."

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How it unfolded

The women’s race covered 136 km around Siena, including 31.6 km of gravel on eight sectors. A breakaway of four formed on the fourth gravel sector, La Piana, but was reeled in on the fifth sector, San Martino in Grania, the longest of the race at 9.5 km.

Karlijn Swinkels (Team Jumbo-Visma) was the next to attack with 47 km to go, and Faulkner bridged to her a few kilometres later. While the two frontrunners increased their gap to 1:30 minutes, there were several counterattacks in the peloton, but none of them got more than a few seconds and were eventually brought back.

Faulkner left Swinkels behind on a short climb 32 km from the finish and continued on her own. She entered the short Monteaperti gravel sector two minutes ahead of the peloton where Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck) increased the pace but couldn’t force a selection.

Going into the penultimate gravel sector of Colle Pinzuto, Faulker was still 1:46 minutes ahead. In the peloton, Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar Team) pushed hard and split the group as only Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ-SUEZ), Pieterse, Liane Lippert (Movistar Team), Kopecky, Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM), and Vollering could follow.

The latter attacked from this group and quickly got a gap, reducing the gap to Faulkner. Vollering then had a scare when a horse ran onto the road in front of her, making the Dutchwoman brake for fear of spooking the horse further by passing it and risking her race.

Once the horse was out of the way, Vollering took up the chase again and was 59 seconds behind Faulkner onto Le Tolfe, the final gravel sector with a steep 18% climb. The group around Van Vleuten was another 15 seconds down.

On the steepest part of the climb, Kopecky attacked and left the other favourites behind to bridge to her teammate as the group broke apart behind her. Joining forces, Kopecky and Vollering slowly, but surely ate into Faulkner’s advantage, and when they were only nine seconds behind at the two-kilometre mark, it was clear that they would catch Faulkner climbing the Via Santa Caterina on the final kilometre.

Vollering made the catch but was caught out by Faulkner closing the gap to the right-side barriers, and Kopecky went into the lead. Vollering came back and took the pole position through the corner at the top as Faulkner faded into the distance but held on for third place.

Kopecky manoeuvred past her on the twisty roads to the Piazza del Campo and was first through the final turn 110 metres from the line, but Vollering managed to come alongside and timed her bike throw perfectly to narrowly win the teammate sprint.

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