Demi Vollering has added a beautiful victory to her palmares with La Course. After 107.4 kilometres the rider managed to beat Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig and Marianne Vos in a sprint. Earlier this season Vollering already won Liège-Bastogne-Liège and was second in both the Amstel Gold Race and Brabantse Pijl.
From the start we saw an active Team SD Worx, with the aim of making the competition as hard as possible. There were a number of minor attacks, mainly from French teams. During the first ascent of the three-kilometre-long Fosse aux Loups, the first large leading group was formed on behalf of Team SD Worx New Zealand’s Niamh Fisher-Black.
The cooperation did not go well, and after an acceleration of Anna van der Breggen, a chasing group was able to join. In the final, a group of ten riders managed to create a gap of over a minute and Fisher-Black was again represented. Just before the last climb of the Fosse aux Loups, the small peloton managed to come back. On the final climb there were a lot of attacks. Van der Breggen tried twice, but a strong Marianne Vos was focused well on her wheel. Subsequently, the world champion kept the pace high to support Vollering’s sprint opportunities.
Vollering managed to get past Vos in the sprint, and gave her best until the finish line. After the finish, a meaningful shout could be heard from Vollering. “I am very happy, because this is very beautiful,” said a surprised Vollering. “This win is high on my list, because I didn’t expect it. I wasn’t busy with this race, maybe because the route was announced late and because of that I had hardly looked into it. The team worked hard today, because of their hard work I was able to win this game.”
Photo credits: Getty Sport