Demi Vollering has admitted she was left bitterly disappointed by her performance on the Col de la Madeleine during the queen stage of the 2025 Tour de France Femmes, conceding that she simply didn’t have the legs to follow the decisive moves. The FDJ-Suez leader, who began the Tour as one of the top favourites, struggled on the final climb and finished the stage with the admission: “Right now I’m completely wrecked.”
Speaking after the stage to NOS, Vollering was open about her frustrations and the gap between her ambitions and her condition.
“Normally I should be able to respond to an attack like that, so I’m really disappointed. I’m not feeling the way I hoped to feel.”
Without Marlen Reusser or Elisa Longo Borghini in the race, the pressure was firmly on Vollering’s shoulders to carry the fight. But she was unable to follow the accelerations of the pure climbers, notably Sarah Gigante and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, on the brutal gradients of the Madeleine.
“Sarah Gigante was super strong today, but normally I should be able to have an answer to that kind of move. I’m just missing a bit of strength the last few days.”
Vollering didn’t sugar-coat her experience: “I just couldn’t follow. It’s that simple. Then suddenly cycling becomes very simple.”
Despite her struggles, she fought back in the final kilometre of the stage, sprinting clear of the small GC group to finish just ahead of Kasia Niewiadoma.
“That was the only thing I could still save. I went all in during that last kilometre, just to see what was still there. It wasn’t much, but it was enough to drop Kasia. Maybe I can still hold onto a podium place – we’ll see.”
Vollering wasn’t ready to think beyond the stage finish, summarising her condition in typically blunt style: “Right now I’m completely wrecked. First we’ll recover, and then we’ll look at tomorrow.”
