{"id":515875,"date":"2026-03-03T11:30:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-03T11:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/515875\/"},"modified":"2026-03-03T11:30:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-03T11:30:09","slug":"she-needs-a-team-around-her-that-reacts-and-is-critical","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/515875\/","title":{"rendered":"She needs a team around her that reacts and is critical"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nFormer Giro d\u2019Italia winner Tom Dumoulin<\/a> analysed the race that traditionally opens the Flemish calendar\u2019s opening weekend, drawing parallels with last year\u2019s edition, won by Lotte Claes after she went clear in a breakaway launched 75 kilometres from the finish.\u201cYou can also look critically at her tactical choices. Last year, in the Omloop, they just let everything unfold. It was a very strange race. Nobody wanted to take control, even though Vollering was the big favourite. They didn\u2019t want to because it would mean having to race all the races, but that\u2019s what you do when you are the best rider in the world. Pogacar does it too, right?\u201d, he said to the podcast NOS Cycling.<\/a>It is public knowledge that FDJ – Suez<\/a> intends to extend Vollering\u2019s contract beyond the end of the current season, with the Dutch rider\u2019s deal running until the end of 2026. Still, Dumoulin issues a warning regarding the management of the competitive environment surrounding the team leader.\"Demi<\/p>\n

Demi Vollering, Pauline Ferrand-Pr\u00e9volt and Kasia Niewiadoma at the final Podium of\u00a02025 Le Tour the France Femmes\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you have a team that forms around you and tells you that everything you do is good, I think they didn\u2019t always handle that well last year.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the Tour de France Femmes established as the main priority, Vollering will face a formidable rival in the high mountains in the shape of Team Visma | Lease a Bike\u2019s Pauline Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe gap in the Tour de France Femmes with Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot was quite big. I think it will be very difficult to close that gap in the high mountains.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dumoulin highlights the morphological differences that may influence performance on long climbs.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut certainly in a Tour de France Femmes like this one\u2026 She is simply a taller woman than Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot. In men\u2019s cycling, you also increasingly see shorter riders excelling in the mountains. It is becoming harder and harder for slightly heavier riders to follow the pace. But if anyone can do it, that person is Demi.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dumoulin advises Vollering<\/p>\n

Finally, the Dutchman adopts a more critical tone regarding his compatriot\u2019s media stance, suggesting that an overly defensive narrative could be counterproductive.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe doesn\u2019t need that. She has the potential to be, by far, the best rider in the world. But she also needs a team around her that reacts and is critical. That\u2019s how you become better together. Friction creates shine.\u201d<\/p>\n

For 2026, the question is not whether she will be in contention, but how high she can raise her level when it comes to the defining moments of the season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Former Giro d\u2019Italia winner Tom Dumoulin analysed the race that traditionally opens the Flemish calendar\u2019s opening weekend,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":515876,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,22235,32851,257930,85,177801,22234],"class_list":{"0":"post-515875","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-cycling","11":"tag-demi-vollering","12":"tag-fdj-suez","13":"tag-omloop-het-nieuwsblad-we","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-tom-dumoulin","16":"tag-tour-de-france-femmes"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515875","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/515876"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}