Demi Vollering

In just three seasons, Demi Vollering rose to the top of the rankings in the Women's WorldTour and developed into one of the most versatile riders in the world, excelling in time trials, hilly one-day races and in the mountains. She was born on November 15, 1996, in Pijnacker, Netherlands and began bike racing in 2015.

Vollering rose to success in professional cycling with the Dutch development team Parkhotel Valkenburg in 2019 and 2020. During her first two years on the European circuit with Parkhotel Valkenburg, Vollering finished third at Liège-Bastogne-Liège, fifth at Flèche Wallonne, and seventh at Amstel Gold Race. She had other top performances such as second overall at Festival Elsy Jacobs, fifth overall at The Women's Tour, 13th overall at the Giro d'Italia Donne and fifth at GP de Plouay. She opened the 2020 season with third overall at Setmana Ciclista Valenciana before the season was shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. When racing returned for a late-season calendar, she took third at La Course by le Tour de France and Flèche Wallonne and seventh places at Gent-Wevelgem and Tour of Flanders.

These performances secured her a contract with SD Worx in 2021, where she will race through the end of 2024. That first year she surged to the top of the leaderboard at a number of races, including La Course by le Tour de France, The Women's Tour and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. The next year she continued winning ways in one-day and stage races, taking the victory at The Brabantse Pijl, Itzulia Women and mountains classification wins at Tour de France Femmes and Vuelta a Burgos Feminas. She was second overall at the Tour de France Femmes and third overall at the Giro d'Italia Donne.

2023 was nothing but brilliant for the Dutch rider. By season's end she secured first place in the UCI Women's World ranking and WorldTour ranking, and was awarded the Vélo d'Or for women. She amassed major victories across one-day races, stage races and gravel competitions. Vollering's path to the top this season started with the Strade Bianche and Dwars door Vlaanderen wins and was made crystal clear with her Ardennes Classics clean sweep. Then if any more convincing was required, she delivered an emphatic victory at the Tour de France Femmes. She placed third at the UCI Gravel World Championships.

If not as successful as her brilliant 2023 campaign, Vollering's 2024 successes were overshadowed - unfairly - by her defeat at the hands of Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) in the Tour de France. After taking yellow in the Tour's mid-race time trial but then losing the jersey in a crash, despite her victorious ascent of the last climb of the race at Alpe d'Huez, Vollering fell narrowly short of a second overall triumph. She also had near-misses in another area where she had ruled supreme, the Ardennes Classics, and her silver in the World Championships time trial was all but eclipsed by a subsequent row on questionable Dutch women's team tactics in the Worlds' road race.

On the plus side, Vollering was able to take sporting revenge on a rare 2023 defeat, at the Vuelta a España Femenina, by clinching the overall victory in 2024. And by any other rider's standards, when combined with victories in WorldTour races of the calibre of the Vuelta a Burgos, Tour de Suisse and Itzulia Women, 2024 would constitute a hugely successful season. In any case, expectations on how Vollering would fare with her new team for 2025, FDJ-SUEZ, remained correspondingly high.

Key Results

2024
🥇Vuelta a España Femenina

🥇Itzulia Women
🥇Tour de Suisse Women

🥇Vuelta a Burgos Feminas
🥈World Championships Time Trial

🥈Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift
🥈Tour de Romandie Feminin
🥈La Flèche Wallonne Féminine

🥈De Brabantse Pijl
🥉Strade Bianche Donne
🥉Liège-Bastogne-Liège
2023

🥇 Tour de Romandie Féminin

🥇 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift

🥇 Vuelta a Burgos Feminas

🥇 Liège-Bastogne-Liège

🥇 Amstel Gold Race Ladies Edition

🥇 Strade Bianche Donne

🥇 Dutch National Championships road race

🥈 World Championships road race

🥈 Tour de Suisse Women

🥈 Dutch National Championships time trial

🥈 Itzulia Women

🥈 La Vuelta Feminina

🥈 De Brabantse Pijl

🥈 Tour of Flanders

2022

🥇 De Brabantse Pijl 

🥇 Itzulia Women, GC and points classification

🥈 Tour de France Femmes

🥈 Amstel Gold Race

🥉 Vuelta a Burgos 

🥉 Challenge by La Vuelta

2021
🥇 The Women's Tour 

🥇 La Course by Le Tour de France 

🥇 Liège-Bastogne-Liège 

🥈 Amstel Gold Race

🥉 Vuelta a Burgos

🥉 Giro d'Italia Donne