{"id":853475,"date":"2026-08-10T23:06:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T23:06:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/853475\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T23:06:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T23:06:11","slug":"lance-armstrong-explores-his-south-holland-roots-demi-vollering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/853475\/","title":{"rendered":"Lance Armstrong Explores His South Holland Roots: Demi Vollering"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Tour de France Femmes<\/a> came to an end on Sunday with a spectacular overall victory<\/a> for Demi Vollering<\/a>. Lance Armstrong<\/a> discussed the race on his THEMOVE podcast<\/a>, alongside former world time trial champion and Olympic silver medalist Mari Holden. Vollering\u2019s performance earned plenty of praise on the show, with Armstrong describing what she had produced as a \u201ccomplete masterclass\u201d, and highlighted one key detail that others might have missed.During the podcast, Armstrong was told more about Vollering\u2019s background, including the fact that her family grows hydrangeas in greenhouses and that Vollering herself trained as a florist. Ahead of last year\u2019s Tour de France Femmes, the Dutch rider reflected on that part of her life in a post on social media, looking back on the period before professional cycling became her full-time career. <\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAround this time, on days like these, I would have been working incredibly hard in the greenhouses, surrounded by flowers. It was there that I knew I had more to offer the world. It was there that I promised myself I wanted to give everything I had to sport. That memory reminds me just how badly I wanted to find out how far I could go if I simply followed my dream,\u201d Vollering wrote alongside a photo of herself working in the greenhouses.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve spent a lot of time in that part of the Netherlands. It\u2019s basically all greenhouses,\u201d Armstrong said while discussing Vollering\u2019s roots. \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

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

\"demi-vollering-bloemen\"\/Armstrong: \u2018There\u2019s no flatter place on earth than where Vollering comes from\u2019<\/p>\n

\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. \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,\u201d Armstrong added. \u201cNow she lives in Switzerland, which is the perfect place for her to train and live.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\"demi-vollering\"\/Armstrong impressed by Vollering\u2019s bike choice<\/p>\n

Of course, there was also talk of the final stage of the Tour Femmes, which Armstrong called an \u201cabsolute masterclass.\u201d \u201cShe\u2019s quickly establishing herself as one of the GOATs in women\u2019s cycling. We Naturally, the final stage of the Tour de France Femmes was also discussed, with Armstrong calling Vollering\u2019s ride an \u201cabsolute masterclass.\u201d The Dutch rider did not simply defend her yellow jersey on the final day in Nice, but underlined her superiority by distancing Kasia Niewiadoma on the decisive final ascent and securing both the stage and overall victory.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s quickly establishing herself as one of the GOATs in women\u2019s cycling,\u201d Armstrong said. \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. \u201dShe 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

Armstrong spots a small but crucial detail<\/p>\n

Armstrong also spotted another detail: Vollering did not complete the stage on the yellow Specialized that was brought out immediately afterwards for the celebrations. Instead, she raced on the bike she had already been using throughout the week. \u201cThis might seem like a small detail, but it isn\u2019t,\u201d Armstrong explained. \u201cShe\u2019s so comfortable on that bike… Kids, don\u2019t change anything on such an incredibly crucial day. Stick with the equipment that has been working for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can set everything up exactly the same, but it never feels exactly the same. She chose to stay on her own bike, which I think was super, super smart,\u201d said the American, who also rated this year\u2019s Tour de France Femmes more highly as a spectacle than the men\u2019s Tour de France.<\/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, referring to Tadej Poga\u010dar\u2019s dominance. \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<\/p>\n