{"id":852873,"date":"2026-08-10T11:00:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T11:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/852873\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T11:00:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T11:00:11","slug":"shes-quickly-establishing-herself-as-one-of-the-goats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/852873\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cShe\u2019s quickly establishing herself as one of the GOATs”"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Vollering trained as a florist before her rise in the cycling world, and Armstrong certainly can believe that her career could have went a different way due to the importance of the industry in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve spent a lot of time in that part of the Netherlands. It\u2019s basically all greenhouses,\u201d Armstrong discussed Vollering\u2019s roots on The Move Podcast.<\/a>Vollering raised in flat country<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you were flying over it and looked down, as far as the eye could see, you would just see those greenhouses. All those beautiful flowers are shipped all over the world. I didn\u2019t know she had grown up in a family involved in that business, but it\u2019s big business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Noting his own experience, Armstrong questioned how some of the world’s best cycling climbers can hail from countries or regions not renowned for their mountainous features.<\/p>\n

In a message to aspiring riders, the former Tour de France yellow jersey record holder issued an important note about how far they can go in the sport.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cIt\u2019s interesting to know that, because when you think about the best climbers in the world, you always assume they were born and raised somewhere like Colorado or Utah, or over in Europe in the Alps or the Pyrenees,\u201d Armstrong continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen you look at where Demi grew up… you really couldn\u2019t find a flatter place on earth. I was born in Dallas and grew up in Plano. It\u2019s not quite as flat as where she comes from, but it\u2019s flat as well. There\u2019s basically just wind.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, kids: you don\u2019t have to be born in the mountains to eventually become a climber. The places where you learn to ride when you\u2019re young don\u2019t necessarily determine what your specialty will be later in life.”<\/p>\n

On the Tour de France Femmes itself, Armstrong praised Vollering’s determination to put herself on the front foot on Sunday’s Nice finale, attacking over the top of Col d’Eze to seal the yellow jersey.<\/p>\n

\"Demi<\/p>\n

Demi Vollering<\/p>\n

Vollering a “deserving winner”<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s quickly establishing herself as one of the GOATs in women\u2019s cycling,\u201d Armstrong said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought she was in the perfect position just to control things and make sure she didn\u2019t crash… but she clearly wanted to make a statement. She\u2019s a deserving winner. She was in a perfect position to control the race and avoid a crash\u2026 but she clearly wanted to make a point. She\u2019s the deserving winner.\u201d<\/p>\n

Comparing Vollering to Tadej Pogacar’s dominance of the men’s sport, Armstrong doesn’t see her holding a vice-like grip on the competition – something that is good for the sport as a whole.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019ve got somebody who is that good, there really isn\u2019t much anyone else can do about it,\u201d Armstrong said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFortunately, we don\u2019t have that situation at the Tour de France Femmes, and that\u2019s what makes it so exciting. It was incredibly entertaining.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Vollering trained as a florist before her rise in the cycling world, and Armstrong certainly can believe…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":852874,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,19488,82,19487],"class_list":["post-852873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-demi-vollering","tag-sports","tag-tour-de-france-femmes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=852873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/852874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=852873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=852873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=852873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}