{"id":858364,"date":"2026-08-17T10:48:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T10:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/858364\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T10:48:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T10:48:13","slug":"demi-vollering-advocates-for-equal-opportunities-for-women-in-cycling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/858364\/","title":{"rendered":"Demi Vollering Advocates for Equal Opportunities for Women in Cycling"},"content":{"rendered":"

Demi Vollering<\/a> recently won her second Tour de France Femmes<\/a>. The Dutch rider from FDJ-SUEZ is currently the biggest star in women\u2019s cycling. She\u2019s also not afraid to speak out about what needs to improve in the sport. Wearing the yellow jersey, she won the Etten-Leur Pro Race, where she once again spoke up and advocated for equal rights.Vollering won what was only the fifth edition of the Tour de France Femmes<\/a>. Before that, it was La Course, a one-day race, and before that, there hadn\u2019t been a women\u2019s Tour at all for a long time. \u201cIt\u2019s wonderful to see how we continue to grow,\u201d Vollering told the AD<\/a>. \u201cAt the same time, I sometimes find it unfortunate that women are being taken advantage of. Because organizations sometimes hold us back. They don\u2019t believe there\u2019s that much interest in us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Because interest in women\u2019s cycling has grown exponentially in recent years. \u201cYou can tell from the viewership numbers that people want to follow it and watch it,\u201d the Dutchwoman notes. \u201cIt\u2019s a challenge for organizations to adapt to this. But they can barely keep up with the growth we\u2019re experiencing and how fast everything is moving.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"demi-vollering\"\/Vollering see the importance of criteriums for the future of Women’s Cycling<\/p>\n

In Etten-Leur, the focus was mainly on the women. Of course, Paul Seixas and Jasper Philipsen were big crowd-pleasers in the men\u2019s race, but in the women\u2019s race, Vollering was joined by polka-dot jersey winner Puck Pieterse, green jersey winner Lorena Wiebes, Tour runner-up Kasia Niewiadoma, Marianne Vos, and others. \u201cCriteriums are very important for inspiring the next generations. That\u2019s how I fell in love with cycling,\u201d says Vollering.<\/p>\n

And so there are more opportunities for women to earn some extra money, but at the same time, the European champion knows that those opportunities are becoming fewer and fewer. \u201cThe schedules are getting busier and busier. The sport is also becoming more intense, with altitude training sessions and training camps. It\u2019s almost impossible to compete for the top spots if you aren\u2019t fully focused all year long.\u201d<\/p>\n

“In that regard, I definitely see the challenge for the riders to line up at the start of these kinds of races and give something back to the fans. Showing off a jersey with pride is, after all, something you do for the people lining the route. I really hope this continues in the future.” And Vollering showed off that jersey with gusto: she crossed the finish line in Etten-Leur as the solo winner.<\/p>\n

Read more below the photo!<\/p>\n

\"demi-vollering\"\/Vollering calls for a more equitable distribution of prize money: ‘the gap Is too wide’There, Vollering reportedly earned about 30,000 euros just for lining up at the start. According to reports, that\u2019s half of what Tadej Pogacar earned<\/a>, and also less than other big names among the men. In the Tour de France Femmes, she earned only one-tenth of Pogacar\u2019s victory bonus. \u201cThe men race for three weeks and have longer days,\u201d she points out. \u201cThere\u2019s no need to equalise the pay.\u201d<\/p>\n

But leaving things as they are isn\u2019t fair either, says Vollering. There needs to be a fair distribution, and that hasn\u2019t happened yet. \u201cBecause the gap is too wide right now. Not for me personally, but symbolically. What I actually think is most important is that there are full broadcasts and that we\u2019re given equal opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Demi Vollering recently won her second Tour de France Femmes. The Dutch rider from FDJ-SUEZ is currently the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":858365,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[64,63,784,22235,85,6494,22234],"class_list":["post-858364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cycling","tag-demi-vollering","tag-sports","tag-tadej-pogacar","tag-tour-de-france-femmes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858364","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=858364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/858364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/858365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=858364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=858364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=858364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}