Demi Vollering has been pictured on the road in the rainbow jersey for the first time since becoming elite women’s world champion in Montréal, with the Dutch squad already together in Slovenia ahead of this weekend’s European Road Championships.
The first version of Vollering’s new jersey is not yet the FDJ United-Suez design that will become familiar in trade-team racing. Instead, she is wearing a TeamNL version carrying the Dutch national team’s branding, including Staatsloterij, while training with her Netherlands teammates. The rainbow bands are unmistakable, but the setting is very much another championship camp rather than a return to normal WorldTour racing.
A quick turnaround from Montréal
There has been little time for Vollering to settle into life as world champion. She won the elite women’s road race world title in Montréal on Saturday, taking her first rainbow jersey after a race in which the Netherlands committed fully to creating opportunities for her.
Vollering attacked from around 38 kilometres out after Puck Pieterse had helped force the decisive selection. The move was eventually brought back, but she still had enough left to survive the final attacks and beat Katarzyna Niewiadoma-Phinney in the sprint, with Elisa Longo Borghini taking bronze. It completed a major 2026 season that had already included overall victories at the Giro d’Italia Women and Tour de France Femmes.
That result also makes the timing of this week’s photograph unusual. New world champions normally get at least a short pause before their first public appearance in the rainbow bands. Vollering has effectively moved straight from one national-team championship environment into another, with only a few days separating Montréal from the European Championships.
Rainbow bands in Dutch colours
The TeamNL version will be a relatively brief variation on the jersey. When Vollering returns to racing for FDJ United-Suez, the trade-team sponsors will be incorporated into the world champion design. For this week, however, the national-team logos take precedence as the Dutch squad prepares for another title race.
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Photo Credit: Getty -
Photo Credit: Getty
Vollering arrives in Slovenia not only as world champion but also as the defending European champion after winning the 2025 road race with a long solo attack. Saturday’s 2026 European Championships women’s road race covers 130km from Ljubljana to Šenčur and includes two ascents of the steep Možjanca climb, a 2.1km effort averaging 10.2% and reaching 15.8%.
The Netherlands also have options around Vollering, with Pieterse and Lorena Wiebes giving the team very different ways to approach the race. The full course is covered in our European Championships route guide, but the immediate visual is simpler: less than a week after winning in Montréal, Vollering is already out training in the jersey that will define the next year of her career.
