Road European Championships: Demi Vollering wins elite women's road race with 37km solo ride

Demi Vollering (Netherlands) won the first European title of her career with a 37km solo attack in the elite women's road race at the UEC Road European Championships.

The former Tour de France winner benefitted from a powerful line-up in the Dutch team, using the seven-kilometre Côte de Saint-Romain-de-Lerps as a launching pad for the solo victory, and extending her advantage over the Côte de Val d'Enfer.

With teammate Anna van der Breggen foiling the pursuit of Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Poland), Vollering amassed a winning margin of over a minute, giving her plenty of time to celebrate her new title.

Niewiadoma-Phinney claimed the silver medal as Van der Breggen sat out the sprint and settled for bronze.

"I'm really proud to take the jersey home for the Dutch team, because we did the perfect race today together," Vollering said after her win.

"And also I felt really good today and the last few days. I was really confident, and I wanted to try to go early, because I knew that all the TT training I did for World Championships, I knew that it was still in me.

"So I wanted to try to go early and do the last part all by myself, to be sure of the victory. And also, because we did such a good race with the whole team, I really wanted to finish it off for them."

How it unfolded

The first attacks of the 116.1km elite women's race at the UEC Road European Championships came early in the race, but nothing would stick until Christina Bragh Lorenzen (Denmark) and Carina Schrempf (Austria) went clear. The pair were joined by Nora Jenčušová (Slovakia) with 88km to go.

The trio lasted until the short, steep Côte de Val d'Enfer with 59km to go where their gap, which maxed out at 1:15, evaporated, and they were caught by a reduced peloton.

The race remained together until an attack came from Margot Vanpachtenbeke (Belgium). She was caught with 42km to go by an even more reduced bunch.

Just 18 of the 85 starters were left in the peloton as the leaders made their way up the Côte de Saint-Romain-de-Lerps, a 7km climb averaging 7.2%. The Dutch had six riders in the move: Mischa Bredewold, Pauliena Rooijakkers, Shirin van Anrooij, Anna van der Breggen and Demi Vollering.

Also in the group were Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Poland), Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy), Elise Chabbey and Noemi Rüegg (Switzerland), Marion Bunel, Cédrine Kerbaol, Juliette Labous and Evita Muzic (France), Mavi Garcia (Spain), Antonia Niedermaier and Franziska Koch (Germany), Urška Zigart (Slovenia) and Carolina Andersson (Sweden).

Demi Vollering surged just before the summit, splitting the group and bringing along Van der Breggen, Longo Borghini and Niewiadoma.

At the top, Vollering was alone with 37km to go, with only Longo Borghini still in view. Van der Breggen and Niewiadoma-Phinney came up to the Italian, but Longo Borghini could not follow the Polish rider's pace on the descent.

After Vollering claimed the win and Niewiadoma-Phinney sprinted to silver, a four-rider chasing group fought to the line 2:31 later, with Franziska Koch (Germany) claiming the minor honours over Elise Chabbey (Switzerland), Juliette Labous (France) and Mavi Garcia (Spain).

Results

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