Only Demi Vollering will wear the rainbow jersey, but the new world champion was clear about how many riders it took to win it. Her breakthrough in Montréal belonged to an entire Dutch team that committed its strength and ambitions to getting her across the line first.
Puck Pieterse’s devastating acceleration that contributed to Vollering’s first solo attack was perhaps the most visible effort, but every Dutch woman had played her role. Before Pieterse’s attack, the Dutch spent long hours controlling the race, making adjustments when their carefully prepared formation was disrupted, and showing a collective willingness to keep working towards the same end goal.
“It’s my biggest victory of my career,” Vollering said, in part because of how the team had raced.
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For Vollering, her teammates’ commitment to go all in for her carried both reassurance and an enormous responsibility.
“You [race the world championships] with teammates who normally are your competitors,” she said in the post-race press conference. “So it’s hard to make a team work like they worked today. For that, I’m so thankful. I’m forever thankful for them for all their hard work.”
Vollering ultimately secured her first elite road world title by outsprinting long-time rival Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Poland). Elisa Longo Borghini completed the podium, while Pieterse finished sixth following her pivotal work in service of Vollering.
Rich in talented riders, the Dutch are always a dominant force at the world championships. 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.
This year, the orange team lined up with one clear leader and six carefully selected riders to race in her service.
“In the past I have said it more often, that if you want to win a race with me, then we need to do it this way,” Vollering said, about the solo leader tactic.
“To set a team in front of me and really sacrifice every team member to also make the race very hard and stay in control. And that’s what we did today. It really took all the effort from every single team member to get to this point.”
That clarity had been established months before the start with national coach Laurens ten Dam building the selection specifically and explicitly around Vollering.
Before the race, Vollering revealed that a lot of conversations took place between Ten Dam and his riders to secure the riders’ commitment. Vollering, in turn, welcomed the responsibility of being the sole leader, believing it could draw more from her when the decisive moment arrived.
Still, it was a considerable thing to ask of riders who could have had a chance of a medal themselves.
“It takes guts to ask this from a team,” Vollering said. “I take a lot of strong Dutch girls with me, they all sacrifice their own chances for me, and then I will finish it off for you. But you don’t know if you can finish it off.
“It’s very hard to say that as well, to say, ‘OK girls, you need to work very hard for me, and then I will take the jersey for you.’ But there is also a chance I cannot do it.”
Her willingness to make that request, and to accept the uncertainty attached to it, was part of what she felt had changed.
Year by year, Vollering explained, she had become better at coping with and accepting the pressure that comes with being one of the top cyclists in the world. She trained her mind, learned how to control her emotions and, just as importantly, learned to tell the people around her what she needed.
She could ask for complete commitment of her team without treating the possibility of defeat as something unbearable.
“I can stay calm in the race and know that if it will not work out, the world will not end,” she said. “In the past maybe it would feel like this as well, but now I also know that it’s not like this.”
The Dutch put that trust into practice throughout the race. Lieke Nooijen and Amber Kraak helped manage the early breakaway. Later, when Femke de Vries’ crash disrupted the intended lead-out, Riejanne Markus rearranged responsibilities. Swinkels took charge before Pieterse delivered the final acceleration on Camillien-Houde with three laps remaining.
The sequence had a familiar shape. During reconnaissance, Swinkels, De Vries and Pieterse had helped launch Vollering towards a record time on the climb. Race day demanded changes in personnel, but the principle survived: sustained pressure from the team, then Vollering’s attack.
Pieterse’s contribution was especially punishing. She continued driving as the gradient eased, extending the effort rather than allowing the favourites a moment to recover.
“The effort had to be as long as possible. So I just went full gas there,” Pieterse said afterwards.
“When Demi eventually went, I looked behind and there was actually nobody on my wheel anymore. I thought, well, that was hard enough.”
Vollering accelerated clear around 38km from the finish, catching and passing lone leader Maeva Squiban. But Niewiadoma-Phinney and Longo Borghini eventually reached her with approximately 15km remaining, and Juliette Berthet subsequently joined them.
The solo victory the Dutch had worked to create was gone. Vollering had prepared for that, too.
“I have seen every single scenario coming by in my head,” she said. “I’ve visualised this race a million hours, it feels like.
“The first scenario was to do an attack and stay out solo. That was, of course, the most ideal one. But then Plan B was, if they come back, that you switch as soon as possible to another scenario.”
Longo Borghini’s attack at the start of the final lap forced another response. Vollering caught her on the last ascent of Camillien-Houde, with Niewiadoma-Phinney following, before the Italian fell away.
“If she stays out over the top of this climb, then we have a problem,” Vollering recalled thinking. “I knew I just had to pace this climb as hard as I could and catch her back before the top.
“You don’t know what you can still do and what the others can still do. It was a nervous moment as well.”
Behind her, Pieterse had reached her own limit. She had tried to disrupt the chase after dropping back from her lead-out, but could no longer follow when the strongest pursuers went across.
Even then, she trusted Vollering to finish the job.
“Demi has a really good sprint as well,” Pieterse said. “I trusted that, if they came back, they would all be completely exhausted and she would still be the strongest.”
That belief mattered to Vollering. The work already done on her behalf gave her another reason to persist through the uncertainty.
“It really helped to have a team who worked so hard the whole day for you,” she said. “You have all the weight on your shoulders to finish it off as well.”
Afterwards, she described the title as probably the biggest victory of her career, in part because bringing together riders who ordinarily compete against one another makes a World Championships so difficult to win.
“There were so many years that I also tried so hard and it didn’t work out, and you’re devastated as well,” Vollering said.
“But this year it’s finally worked out for me. I’m so incredibly proud to have delivered here and wear this beautiful jersey.”
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