Tour de France Women 2023: Demi Vollering, the Triumph of the New Queen of the Peloton At 26 years old, Demi Vollering secured her first victory in the Tour de France Women’s race on Sunday, capping off her dominant performance in women’s cycling this season. Shocking Upset: Demi Vollering Claims Tour de France Crown.
The rising star has reached her zenith. At the age of 26, Demi Vollering has etched her name in golden letters in the history of the Tour de France Women’s edition by brilliantly winning the 2023 race on Sunday, July 30th. Bursting onto the professional cycling scene like a meteor in 2019, the former speed skater has finally emerged from the shadow of her compatriot Annemiek van Vleuten, the reigning champion, who had consistently overshadowed her until now.
This time, the apprentice has surpassed the mentor, and the crown of the Tour de France has changed hands, moving from the head of one Dutchwoman to another. The era of Van Vleuten has come to an end, making way for Vollering, whose blue eyes were understandably teary as she crossed the finish line in Pau, while the new queen struggled to come back down to Earth.
A Stratospheric Season “I can’t believe it… I don’t know how to explain, it’s too much,” Demi Vollering tried to express, struggling to find words, before collecting herself: “We have a dream, we work for it, but afterward, you need to stay calm, find a good balance in your life, be a bit relaxed too.”
“This morning I was very relaxed, maybe a bit too much, because you still need to have some tension to start. I stressed myself before the start to get into the right mindset.”
Demi Vollering to francetv The shooting star from SD Worx, who admitted before the 2022 Tour that she “didn’t like being the leader,” had no reason to tremble on Sunday morning, after stunning the race the previous day on the historic slopes of Tourmalet. She even managed to outshine Annemiek van Vleuten, the legend, who acknowledged the new sovereign at the top of the Pyrenean giant: “I encountered an opponent better than me. But even if I had an exceptional day, I wouldn’t have beaten Demi. She was on a different level. Congratulations.”
Too inexperienced last year to even challenge Van Vleuten, who won with nearly a 4-minute lead last summer, Vollering was then just a promise on the horizon. Since then, the rocket from Pijnacker, a commuter town near The Hague, has taken off, to the point of vying for the throne of the Tour de France. The evidence: she entered the 2023 Grande Boucle wearing the leader’s distinctive jersey of the Women’s World Tour (which doesn’t exist in the men’s competition), symbolizing her exceptional recent months.
From the beginning of 2023, Demi Vollering has shifted gears. In 36 days of racing, she has raised her arms in victory 13 times, and not just in any races: from the Strade Bianche to the Tour de Burgos, including the Dutch Championships and the Tour of Flanders, along with her historic triple at the Ardennes classics, winning the Amstel Gold Race, La Flèche Wallonne, and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. In simple terms: out of the 15 races she participated in, she stood on the podium 14 times.
When Attacked, Vollering Counters The only regret of her season was the Vuelta, where she won two stages but lost by nine seconds to Annemiek van Vleuten, of course. This was after a controversy, as her rival attacked her while Demi Vollering was addressing a natural need. This “pipigate,” as the SD Worx leader referred to it, was still on her mind when she approached the 2023 Tour de France Women’s race, during which she and her team left no room for their opponents.
Coincidence or not, it was in the fog that enveloped Tourmalet on Saturday that Demi Vollering finally seized the spotlight, clinching the stage victory, the yellow jersey, and the 2023 Tour de France victory. Shocking Upset: Demi Vollering Claims Tour de France Crown. All of this followed a tactical performance. The Dutch cyclist notably declined to cooperate with Van Vleuten on the Col d’Aspin, choosing to slow down initially in order to accelerate later.
Alone on Her Planet “When Katarzyna Niewiadoma attacked, Annemiek told me, ‘If we don’t both work, we’ll both lose.’ I told her, ‘That’s fine with me.’ It wasn’t my role to lead. I still had teammates behind me, especially Lotte (Kopecky), who was defending her yellow jersey,” the day’s big winner later justified about her perfectly executed bluff. Ironically, she shifted the fate of the Tour de France Women’s race in the fog, at an altitude, five kilometers from the summit: a scenario similar to her victory on the final stage of the Vuelta, where Van Vleuten also cracked five kilometers from the top. Shocking Upset: Demi Vollering Claims Tour de France Crown
However, this time, Demi Vollering wasn’t caught off guard by a rival’s attack during a natural break. This changes everything because, almost three months after losing the Vuelta by nine seconds, she won the Tour de France with a four-minute lead over her rival.
Long portrayed as the future Annemiek van Vleuten, Demi Vollering has shed this label to embody the future of women’s cycling. As the reigning world champion prepares to retire at the end of the season, the new queen only needs to find another rival. But the problem when you’re at the top is that the chasers are far behind. For now, Demi Vollering stands alone on her yellow planet.
