Demi Vollering learns from Tour setback to Ferrand-Prévot and overhauls 2026 schedule

The French women’s team held a last-minute presentation on Thursday evening, sharing programmes and ambitions for its leaders. Vollering was present, and her schedule this year includes some surprising choices.

Vollering recently started her season at the women’s Setmana Ciclista Valenciana — a race she won in 2025 — and she repeated the feat, adding two stage wins along the way. She will then follow a similar early-season path to last year, when she also rode Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Strade Bianche.

After the white-road race on 7 March, Vollering will turn her back on Italy for a while. Whereas she rode Trofeo Alfredo Binda and Milan–Sanremo last year, those races are not on her programme in 2026. Instead, she will go into a training block to be ready for Dwars door Vlaanderen and the Tour of Flanders — races she skipped in 2025.

Although not every race on Vollering’s calendar has been made public, the trend continues as the season moves toward summer. After the traditional Ardennes triple — Amstel Gold Race, Flèche Wallonne and Liège–Bastogne–Liège — she will head to altitude before returning to the Giro Donne. The last time Vollering rode the Giro was in 2021.

After the Giro — which in 2026 is being moved from early July to early June — the focus will shift fully to the Tour de France Femmes. Vollering will also insert another training block between the Giro and the Tour. For now, that puts her at 18 race days in 2026, compared to 29 in 2025 — though that number could still increase.

Looking at Pauline Ferrand-Prévot’s winning build-up with Visma | Lease a Bike in 2025, she had 16 race days before the Tour. That figure was influenced by an ankle injury, which meant she didn’t finish the Vuelta and didn’t race again until France.

Vollering is therefore taking a big chunk out of her own race days ahead of the Tour as well. “The big difference is that my summer is calmer, without a Spanish block and with one more altitude camp before the Giro,” she explained. “I’ve got more structured training blocks around the races that are on the schedule.”

The Giro’s return to her calendar is linked to the organisers shifting the women’s race on the calendar. “I want to do a good training block before the Tour, and now that the Giro has moved to June, I can add it in,” Vollering said. “I’d also like to do Roubaix one day, but for now I’m prioritising the Ardennes.”

Vollering — who ended 2025 as European champion and will wear the continental champion’s jersey in 2026 — is confident that the changes will help her reach the Tour at a higher level. “I believe we can do it and we’re going to work very hard for it. We’ll go for the best possible result.”

With a time trial expected at the Tour de France Femmes, the all-rounder and strong tester will be pleased. And at the Giro Donne, she gets an extra mountain highlight: the Colle delle Finestre. “The Finestre — everyone knows how hard it is. I’ve never done it, but I’m going to recon it and I’m really looking forward to it.”

But first comes Omloop Het Nieuwsblad on Saturday afternoon for the women’s elite. That’s a race she’d love to tick off too, as she has never won it. “I’m really eager, even if Omloop was never a big target in the past,” Vollering said. “It’s a nice moment to see where you are, and I’d really like to win it one day.”

Strade Bianche
Dwars door Vlaanderen
Tour of Flanders

Amstel Gold Race
Flèche Wallonne
Liege-Bastogne-Liege

Giro Donne
Tour de France Femmes

Bram van der Ploeg ( X: @BvdPloegg | email : [email protected])