Vollering unable to react after Mont Ventoux, Lars Boom does: ‘Sunday may suit Demi better’

Demi Vollering was completely spent after pushing through the pain barrier and reaching the summit of Mont Ventoux on Friday. The Dutchwoman appeared to have Stage 7 of the Tour de France Femmes under control for a long time with FDJ United-SUEZ, but on the Ventoux she was countered by Kasia Niewiadoma after launching an attack of her own. Niewiadoma opened up such a big gap that she not only won the stage but also took over the yellow jersey.

Vollering needed some time to recover after eventually finishing second on the day, 1 minute and 16 seconds behind Niewiadoma. Even so, she managed to take around half a minute back in the closing stages by dropping yellow jersey wearer Marlen Reusser and giving everything she had to keep Niewiadoma within reach in the general classification.

With a 15-second deficit to the CANYON//SRAM rider in the overall standings, that mission was still reasonably successful, although Vollering would of course have preferred to take the yellow jersey herself on Mont Ventoux. That was exactly why she attacked, and after Niewiadoma rode away, the European champion even appeared close to making contact again for a moment. She could not quite get there before the elastic finally snapped.

Six seconds became 20 seconds, 20 became 40, and eventually Niewiadoma had taken a minute on Vollering and Reusser. Vollering did a lot of the work on the front of the chasing duo, but when Reusser’s yellow jersey came under threat — with Niewiadoma starting the day 1 minute and 17 seconds behind in the GC — the Swiss rider had to take responsibility for most of the pace-setting. Sitting on her wheel, Vollering then managed to put more time into Reusser in the finale.

After seeing Vollering at the finish, the question of whether there had been more in the tank seemed unnecessary. The FDJ leader had squeezed absolutely everything out of her body and gone far beyond her limit. Niewiadoma did not simply take 1 minute and 40 seconds out of Vollering and Reusser without being exceptionally strong, according to sports director Lars Boom. “It was a great battle to watch, but it’s a shame it didn’t go our way,” he told reporters including NOS.

“I’m not surprised by Niewiadoma, because she looked strong and she showed that today. I think everyone was pretty much at their limit, although Demi did a great job of coming back for a while. She struggled badly for quite a long time, though,” Boom stressed, dismissing any suggestion that Vollering had become involved in a tactical poker game with Reusser. “As far as I know right now, nothing went wrong, although we had hoped for slightly better legs. Demi was very good, but Kasia was better.”

According to Boom, Vollering’s strong finish did not mean she had deliberately kept something in reserve. “Demi always has a strong finish, so the plan was also to use that to distance people there. There was just still one rider ahead of us. Now we have to do everything right, and then on Sunday there is a stage that may suit Demi better than today.”

After crossing the finish line, Vollering rode on to the buses, where the NOS finally caught up with her on camera. “I’m mostly disappointed,” she sighed from the rollers. “I made my move, and Kasia cleverly got past me right away. I should have closed the gap immediately, but I’d hoped to be able to make a breakaway without Marlen.”

That didn’t work out, so Reusser became a hindrance, one she was only able to shake off in the very final stretch. “The last stretch had a really strong headwind, so it’s better to be in a pair. Kasia, however, had really strong legs today and just kept pulling away. I probably couldn’t have kept up with Kasia, but that’s something you start to doubt in hindsight.”

“That’s where the disappointment lies—I feel I should have tried sooner. But in the end, Kasia won here with a super strong and impressive performance. It’s hard to say if there was more in it for me. In the moment, you give it one hundred percent; afterward, you think: if only I had…”