If anyone was still in any doubt as to who is the Queen of the women’s peloton, Demi Vollering used the European Championships road race in Slovenia on Saturday to remind them that it is, indeed, her.
Having won the World Championships road race only a week previously, Vollering flew back from Montréal to debut her new rainbow bands jersey in Slovenia, and successfully defend the European title she first won in France last year.
The Dutchwoman won solo after attacking from a group of three that comprised her Dutch teammate Puck Pieterse and Poland’s Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney on the final climb. Despite the chase group growing bigger, Vollering held them off to take the win, with Pieterse claiming silver for a memorable Dutch one-two.
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Vollering has won from start to finish this year with her FDJ United-Suez team, taking her first victories in some of cycling’s biggest races – the Tour of Flanders, Giro d’Italia Women and the World Championships road race, for example. Then there was, of course, her second Tour de Frances Femmes avec Zwift win in August, in which she took three stage victories.
In comments to journalists following her European Championships triumph, Vollering made clear that crossing the line first is not something that is about to get old for her.
“I just really love winning, and it never gets boring for me,” she said afterwards. “So I think also it’s not only the winning for me, but just improving yourself and getting better every day, working on yourself every day, and see what’s still possible for the future. I think that’s what I love most about this job.”
Vollering paid tribute to the rest of the Dutch team, calling it “a beautiful second place for Puck today”.
Vollering will represent the Netherlands again on Wednesday 7 October in the European Championships time trial. It’s a race she has yet to win, although this could be one of her best chances yet to do so. However, that would involve bettering Swiss rider Marlen Reusser, who took bronze in the road race and has won four out of the past five editions of the race.
