Demi Vollering wants to seek revenge in the Tour de France Femmes starting Saturday with a new team. The Dutch rider, who finished second last year by four seconds, starts as the favorite. But the list of competitors is long.
Vollering was on the cover of L’Équipe magazine a week and a half ago. “She is the best cyclist in the world,” wrote the famous French sports newspaper.
It is the extra pressure that Vollering will feel this Tour de France. The 28-year-old from South Holland is riding for a French team (FDJ-SUEZ) for the first time this season. And that team especially wants to win the biggest race in its own country.
Vollering is the biggest contender as 154 riders start the nine-day tour in Vannes, Brittany on Saturday. She proved in May and June that she is still the best climber, winning the Vuelta a España, the Tour of the Basque Country, and the Tour of Catalonia in succession.
But at the end of that busy block of races, it also became clear that Vollering is not invincible. In the Tour de Suisse, she had to acknowledge her former teammate Marlen Reusser as her superior. After the last stage, Vollering said she was completely empty. Since then, she has only ridden the road race at the Dutch National Championships.
Many competitors for Vollering
During the Giro d’Italia earlier this month, Vollering was at training camp. In the Italian tour, two of her biggest competitors showed that their form is good. The Italian Elisa Longo Borghini was the best after eight stages, just ahead of Reusser. Those two riders will also want to compete for the overall victory in the Tour.
The same applies to Katarzyna Niewiadoma. The thirty-year-old Polish rider won the Tour for the first time last year, after a game of seconds with Vollering on Alpe d’Huez. Niewiadoma has not achieved many top results this season, but she did finish third in the Tour de Suisse. “I want to take the yellow jersey again, although it is not an obsession,” she said on her team’s website.
Lotte Kopecky announced at the beginning of this season that she wanted to go for the Tour win for the first time, but the world champion has backtracked on that. The Belgian is having a difficult season so far due to a knee injury and back problems. She is therefore initially focusing on stage wins, her team SD Worx-Protime reported this week.
The 35-year-old Anna van der Breggen is also cautious about her chances in the general classification at her Tour debut. So, there seems to be no spicy duel between Vollering and SD Worx. Vollering did not leave the Dutch team, which contributed to her painful defeat in the Tour last year with poor tactical choices, on very good terms last winter.
Pieterse and Rooijakkers among outsiders
In the long list of outsiders are two Dutch women, teammates Puck Pieterse and Pauliena Rooijakkers. Pieterse impressed at her Tour debut last year with a stage win and eleventh place in the general classification. Rooijakkers finished third, just ten seconds behind Niewiadoma.
The French are hoping for Pauline Ferrand-Prévot. The winner of Paris-Roubaix started a three-year project with Visma-Lease a Bike this year, which should result in a Tour victory. She will be assisted by luxury helper Marianne Vos.
“I had to get used to the long climbs again,” Ferrand-Prévot said at a press conference this week. “That’s why I bought a house in Andorra. If I have a goal, I go all out for it.”
The course of the fourth edition of the Tour de France Femmes seems particularly suitable for climbers. In particular, the final weekend in the Alps, with a finish on top of the Col de la Madeleine next Saturday, promises to be extremely tough.