The Dutch women have rarely lacked riders capable of winning the world title, but getting all that talent to work towards the same result has sometimes been the harder part.
In Montréal, too, the seven-rider roster is packed with possibility, and there could be several cards to play. There’s Puck Pieterse, winner of La Flèche Wallonne in 2025, whose explosive climbing makes her a threat on short, steep ascents. Multi-time national champion, Riejanne Markus, brings a combination of climbing strength and time-trial power. And, of course, there’s Demi Vollering, one of the peloton’s biggest stars and winner of this year’s Giro d’Italia Women and Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift.
Even the absence of Anna van der Breggen and Mischa Bredewold has done little to diminish the roster’s fire power.
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“We have a really strong squad here, and we’re in a privileged position as the Netherlands,” Vollering told the media on Thursday night, adding that the roster changes impacted the team’s strength little.
“I don’t necessarily think we have a weaker team here,” she said. “That’s something really special about the Netherlands — having so many riders to choose from.”
But the leadership question is settled: the team is all in for Vollering.
“The girls are all fully on board with it, and we have a really strong squad,” Vollering said.
Her role comes with the pressure to deliver. Vollering welcomes it, starting that the responsibility can bring out the best of her.
“The past has shown that when we have a good Plan A, I respond really well to that,” Vollering said ahead of Saturday’s road race at the UCI Road World Championships. “Because then I can’t hide behind other strong riders.
“I actually like that kind of pressure, knowing that all those riders are doing it for you. Ultimately, that gives me that extra little percentage during the race to finish it off.”
There is good reason for the Dutch to value this clarity. They have won five of the past 10 women’s world road race titles, but their strength in numbers has sometimes been undermined by disjointed teamwork.
In Leuven in 2021, a succession of attacks left them short of riders to deliver Marianne Vos in the sprint, where she took silver behind Italy’s Elisa Balsamo. In Zürich in 2024, Vollering accelerated behind a break containing teammates Vos and Riejanne Markus, helping bring it back before finishing fifth as the Dutch missed the elite podium altogether.
This time, national coach Laurens ten Dam has explicitly built the selection around Vollering, with conversations over the preceding weeks and months helping establish a shared understanding of her leadership role.
“I think [ten Dam] has done a really good job with that,” Vollering said, explaining that he had been in regular contact with the riders and relayed their positive feedback to her.
Vollering is already seeing evidence of that commitment. During the course recon, Femke de Vries offered to set the pace for one of her planned climbing efforts. Puck Pieterse enthusiastically joined the idea, and the exercise became a shared challenge — one that took Vollering well beyond the intensity her coach had prescribed.
“We enjoyed it and had fun, so that was nice,” she said. “I really like seeing that the girls came up with the idea themselves. That shows confidence in me.”
The confidence within the group does not mean Vollering considers her own performance guaranteed. She believes she is in good form, but said the real answer will only come once the race is underway and she can measure herself against the opposition.
She also expects a long race to demand patience. An unpromising feeling early on need not dictate the outcome.
“Even if you don’t have the very best legs, I think you can still get a long way on this course,” she said. “You should never let your head drop, because it’s so long. Things can change again during the race.”
What the Dutch intend to do with that distance remains private. Asked whether they had already identified the point, or the lap, on which she would make her move, Vollering offered assurance without revealing the details.
“I think we have a really good plan, and it’s super clear to all of us. But of course I’m not going to tell you,” she said smiling.
The elite women’s road race takes place on Saturday, 26 September, starting in Brossard at 9 a.m. local time (EDT). The 180.4km route includes eight laps of Montréal’s 13.4km Mount Royal circuit and a total of 2,570 metres of climbing.
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