Cor Vos
Hello, hello! Did I want to dedicate this entire newsletter to The Life of a Showgirl? Yes. Will I do that? No. Only for those of you who come here for women’s cycling updates and takes. It helps that the European Championship road race on Saturday was a good one, with a winner who has been knocking at the door of a major championship for years.
Boss up, settle down, I’ve got a lot to say.
First things first: Vollering can’t be caught. Dutchwoman has too much fun at European Championships
She’s spent the last five years earnestly chasing a World Championship title, with only one podium finish – second behind Lotte Kopecky in 2023 in Glasgow. In the last two years, Vollering has had a bad habit of fumbling the World title, doing too much in 2024 and too little in 2025. There were reasons behind each miss, and the question isn’t whether Vollering will ever win the Road World Championship, but when. On Saturday, the Dutchwoman took another step towards that goal with a win at the European Championships. Meaning for the next 364 days, she will wear the blue and white jersey of the European champ.
Instead of waiting for the right moment to go near the finish, Vollering forced her advantage on the rest – mainly Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Poland) and Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy) – with over 30 km to go, on the only major climb of the race. She attacked late on the ascent and only built her advantage, finishing the race with over a minute on Niewiadoma-Phinney and Dutch teammate Anna van der Breggen.
Compared to the Worlds course in Kigali a week prior, European Championships was very short: only 116.1 km. There were some attacks in the beginning, with a group of three gaining a minor advantage on the peloton and Margot Vanpachtenbeke trying a solo attack, but the heavy hitters waited until the Côte de Saint-Romain-de-Lerps to make some moves.
The course was challenging enough that when they hit the 7 km ascent, only 18 riders remained, with six Dutchwomen present, so Vollering’s team had a massive advantage.
As they made their way up the climb, the numbers dwindled, and when Vollering attacked, Longo Borghini was the only one to hold the wheel – but not for long. The Italian would eventually finish 10th, 4:42 down.
Vollering’s 37 km solo move was chased by Niewiadoma-Phinney, who was tailed closely by Van der Breggen. Of course, as Vollering’s in-race teammate, Van der Breggen had no reason to chase. When the two came to the line, the veteran rider didn’t even try to outsprint Niewiadoma-Phinney, which the Polish rider alluded to after the race.
“It’s nice to end up with a medal, of course, the hopes were higher, but I also have to admit Demi had an extremely brutal attack, and maybe I’m a little angry with myself because I felt like somehow mentally I gave up,” Niewiadoma-Phinney said. “I allowed myself to sit on Anna’s wheel. I ended up chasing Demi for a very long time, which wasn’t ideal, but she was really strong. I also have to say a big thank you to Anna for basically acknowledging the fact that I worked so hard and allowing me to get the silver.”
Demi Vollering on the attack at the European Championship road race.
Niewiadoma-Phinney chalked up missing the moment that Vollering attacked to mental fatigue, but the legs were clearly pretty good since she managed to chase the eventual winner for 30 km and hold off the rest of the remaining medal hunters.
“There was just this one moment when Demi attacked, which was really hard when we were in the group of four,” Niewiadoma-Phinney explained. “Sometimes, I feel like I allow myself to be like ‘Ok, nothing will happen now’, instead of being ready for more attacks, more action. I think it happens when you’re more tired and mentally fatigued. I wish I were sharper in my mind.”
As for Van der Breggen, she was happy with how the race went. And clearly, the new DS at the Dutch federation, Laurens ten Dam, is working hard to get the women to race as a team. It’s working, as we saw at the Worlds, even if in Kigali they didn’t have the result to show for it, they do now.
“It’s a good day when you can execute the plan like this,” Van der Breggen said after the race. “You can make a plan, and many times it doesn’t work, but today it worked.”
“I was happy to be there, to be in the mix in the front. The chase for Kasia was hard; it’s also annoying to have someone on your wheel always.”
The Dutchwoman also said, had she been racing for SD Worx-Protime, she would have assisted in the chase, but as it was, she wasn’t about to chase down Vollering.
Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney and Anna van der Breggen during the European Championship road race.
“If I’m so long on someone’s wheel, I’m not going to steal a medal in front of her nose, so for me the bronze medal is nice,” Van der Breggen said. “It’s an extra bonus. Today, Laurens ten Dam was pretty clear, we go for the jersey and for the victory, and that’s what we did.”
For Vollering, the victory marks her first major championship win. She was the Dutch road champion back in 2023, which, in a lot of ways, is like winning the Worlds with how stacked the Dutch nation is, but to win the Europeans is something really special. It’s a jersey that tops the national jersey in hierarchy.
“I’m really proud to take the jersey home for the Dutch team, because we did the perfect race today together,” Vollering said after her win. “And also, I felt really good today and the last few days. I was really confident, and I wanted to try to go early, because I knew that all the TT training I did for World Championships, I knew that it was still in me.
“So I wanted to try to go early and do the last part all by myself, to be sure of the victory. And also, because we did such a good race with the whole team, I really wanted to finish it off for them.”
Previous races, where Vollering has shown weakness in how she reads a race, were just temporary speedbumps, and failure brings you freedom, or in Vollering’s case, a title she will hold forever.
For some riders at the Europeans, the season is done. Niewiadoma-Phinney, for example, is looking forward to kissing this one goodbye.
“Not the greatest season; last year was one of the best, this year is the opposite,” Niewiadoma-Phinney said. “I accept that. I know that sometimes this is the flow, maybe this season is to give me more motivation for the winter training. I feel like when things don’t go your way, you get extra hunger for more.”
“I’m finished. I’m ready to party now.”
Oh boy, Kasia, do I have the dance-friendly album for you!
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