‘It was the first-ever climb I did’ – Demi Vollering ready to head back to where it all began as Tour de France Femmes prepares for Mont Ventoux queen stage

Following her signal-of-intent victory in the hills of the Jura at the Tour de France Femmes, Demi Vollering is heading back to where it all began on Friday as the race makes its maiden voyage to the illustrious slopes of Mont Ventoux.

The Giant of Provence made its name as a major climb of the men’s Tour de France, featuring 18 times on the route since its inauguration in 1958. Other men’s races, including Paris-Nice, the Critérium du Dauphiné, and Tour de la Provence, have also paid visits over the years.

Anna Kiesenhofer soloed away in the early kilometres of the climb to take victory a decade ago, which was around the same time, Vollering was also discovering Ventoux for the first time.

Back then, the Dutch racer’s sporting focus still lay primarily on speed skating, though she was delving into road cycling before fully committing in 2018. Speaking at the post-stage press conference on Wednesday following her victory in Belleville-en-Beaujolais, Vollering discussed her Ventoux debut.

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“It’s a really nice climb, and it’s a bit where it all started for me. So I’m really looking forward to this climb. It was the first-ever climb I did when I was younger,” she said.

“It was 2018 the last time, I think. We always went in August. So, now it will be exactly 10 years ago that it was the first time, so it’s quite cool.”

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Vollering, who was emotional as she talked about those early visits to Ventoux, explained that she went on the trips with her speed skating training group after learning about the mountain via a recommendation from her coach.

“It was because I was still ice skating at that time, and we had a really nice group of friends,” she said.

“Our trainers really made sure that we kept the fun, and one of the trainers always came every summer to Mont Ventoux with his wife. At one point he thought, ‘I’ll bring my training group with me.’

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“So then we went there with the bikes, and it was for the first time back then. Actually, after that, we did it every year for three years in a row. Then I became a pro, so I couldn’t join anymore, but they kept on going.

“It’s really nice, because I’m really still very close with this group, and they come every year to the Tour de France to support me, so it’s really cool.”

‘I’m just done. Let’s just race’ – Vollering ready to continue the yellow jersey battle

Of course, the race-day experience of tackling the 15.7km climb will be poles apart from those friendly training rides. That 8.8% average gradient and wind-exposed lunar landscape will certainly feel different when Vollering is going head-to-head with her fellow top climbers, including Marlen Reusser (Movistar), Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon-SRAM), and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike).

Still, Vollering, who has already ticked off stage wins on two other legendary Tour summits – the Col du Tourmalet and L’Alpe d’Huez – said she hopes she can enjoy Friday’s ascent.

“It will bring back a lot of memories, I think. The feeling of riding a climb for the first time is super special – especially because I knew back then already that I was quite good at it, so I really enjoyed it. I really hope I can enjoy it again on the stage itself.

“I think still anything can happen. Mont Ventoux is a very, very hard climb,” said Vollering, not quick to forget what happened last year when Ferrand-Prévot took just over three minutes on her, and more on most others, on Col de la Madeleine. “So, we don’t know what she is capable of on a long climb – it’s just a different effort.

“Still, I would like to dream of yellow, of course, but we’re not there yet. I cannot dream too big yet. I need to be focussed and tackle every day as a one-day stage race. Then, we will see all the way in Nice how it ends up.”

Vollering has been impatient for the GC action to kick off at this year’s Tour. On the opening day’s hilltop finish in Lausanne, she raced to third place to pick up four bonus seconds.

The result, and her build-up to the Tour in general, was a stark contrast to her experience last summer, she said after the stage.

“Last year, I would wake up every morning thinking, ‘Shit, another morning closer to the Tour.’ And now I woke up every morning feeling super motivated and thinking, ‘Yes, I feel good, and I’m looking forward to it’,” she explained.

On the evidence so far, Vollering is in top form. She followed up her outing in Lausanne with third in the Dijon time trial, shedding just 17 seconds to world champion Reusser, while yesterday brought that surge to a fourth career Tour stage win.

With more hills on the way as the race hits the Ardèche on stage 6 before the Ventoux pilgrimage, the ‘real racing’, so to speak, is finally underway, and the GC battle is unfolding. Both Vollering and her FDJ United-SUEZ teammates are ready for the fight.

“Yesterday in the [team] meeting, I said, ‘I’m just done. Let’s just race,’ because stage 2 and stage 3 were sometimes a bit boring, a bit slower, a bit waiting. Nobody really wanted to race, from my feeling,” Vollering said.

“Also, maybe because of the heat, everybody was a bit scared, and maybe for stage 3, everybody was thinking already of the time trial. So, yeah, I was just ready to race, because that’s the mindset I had coming into this Tour: to go full gas every day and not hesitate to make the race colourful.

“Also, in the beginning of the race, my teammates suffered a bit from the heat and maybe after the altitude to find their legs. But today was a day where everybody was in their form again, so we could really race and really enjoy it as a whole team.”

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