Demi Vollering will line up at the second edition of the restored Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift in the best form of her life and one of two overwhelming favourites to win the overall title at the eight-day race held from July 23-30.
There has been a near-frenzy over what many believe will be a highly-anticipated Van Vleuten versus Vollering battle for the yellow jersey. However, Vollering is adamant that such a narrow perspective leaves out other potential winners in the peloton.
“It’s not only between me and Annemiek. I think this course is good for a lot of riders; Classics riders, for example, Elisa Longo Borghini or Silvia Persico, will all be very good on this course,” Vollering said in an interview before the start in Clermont-Ferrand.
“I think there will be a battle between multiple riders. It’s a hard course every day, and it’s not only Annemiek and me, and I hope a lot more riders.”
There is a short list of contenders who will also be in the race for yellow along with Elisa Longo Borghini (Lidl-Trek) and Silvia Persico (UAE Team ADQ); there is last year’s podium finisher Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM), Juliet Labous (Team dsm-firmenich), Marta Cavalli and Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig (FDJ-SUEZ), Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio (AG Insurance-Soudal-QuickStep), Mavi Garcia (Liv Racing TeqFind) and Veronica Ewers (EF Education-TIBCO-SVB).
However, none have shown the same level of form that Vollering and Van Vleuten have demonstrated in their remarkable performances this season; Vollering during Classics and early-season stage races and Van Vleuten dominating the Giro Donne, making them the overwhelming favourites.
Closing the gap to Van Vleuten
At last year’s Tour de France Femmes, Vollering was the closest rival to Van Vleuten on the ascents of Le Markstein and La Super Planche des Belles Filles. But on both climbs, she crossed the line and appeared bewildered by Van Vleuten’s strength; after all, she had trained harder than she ever had before in preparation for the race and surpassed all her previous power numbers. It wasn’t enough to contest Van Vleuten’s rampage through the mountains.
Van Vleuten explained that by being older, she has been racing longer and progressively more each year and has more experience. She also suggested that, given more time for her body to adapt to higher training loads, Vollering would close the gap to Van Vleuten in the…
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