Can Vollering and Van der Breggen coexist at the World Championships? "We’d both be disappointed if the other won the title"

In the men's race, Thijs Zonneveld notes that some big names are missing. “There are so many missing, which is a shame,” he says in the podcast In de Waaier. "No Van der Poel, no Vingegaard, no Van Aert, no Pedersen... But also no Grégoire, no McNulty, no Almeida. You want to see all those guys, right? When you saw Grégoire in Luxembourg, you thought: this is going to be something at the World Championships. But he's not riding in the World Championships at all."

In the women's race, we can expect a much better starting list. Defending champion Lotte Kopecky will not be there, and Marianne Vos had to withdraw a week before the race due to family circumstances. Puck Pieterse will also not be competing in Rwanda. However, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, Demi Vollering, Elisa Longo Borghini, Marlen Reusser, Anna van der Breggen, Kimberley Le Court, and others will be present, providing plenty to enjoy!

With Vollering and Van der Breggen, the Netherlands has two real leaders, but according to Zonneveld, that could cause problems. “They're not the best of friends,” he says. “Even though things are going well now, they both want to be world champion. And they'll both be disappointed if the other one becomes world champion.”

What happened in Zurich will not happen again, according to the former cyclist. “I can't imagine Vollering doing the same thing as last year; enough has been said about that. But these two riders are not going to go out for a beer together. It wasn't much different between Van der Breggen and Annemiek van Vleuten. But they have never ridden behind each other.”

Another problem is the lack of explosiveness in the Dutch selection. “The Netherlands doesn't have a single rider who can just ride to a sprint with another rider. Vollering is pretty fast, but she doesn't always sprint well, especially lately. The same goes for Van der Breggen. You always had Vos, but the Netherlands doesn't have her now.”

And then it could be difficult, especially if Le Court is on form. The winner of Liège-Bastogne-Liège is extremely fast. "If she climbs like she did in the Tour... It's very tough, of course, but she has that explosiveness; she's the fastest of the climbers, if you count her among them. But if there are 10 of them sprinting, she's the fastest. If there are 5 left, it becomes doubtful.

Because there are better climbers present, the woman from Mauritius will follow the blueprint of the defending champion. “She will apply last year's Kopecky tactic. She will think: I'll pretend I'm not there until the last two laps, and then I'll see. If there's a group that's five minutes ahead, then it won't happen this year. You can't chase everything on your own.”

So, no sprint for the Netherlands. How can Van der Breggen become champion? "By breaking away. If I were her, I would go very early. She has to go so early that she is ahead of the others. Preferably in a group with Van Anrooij, Kastelijn, or Markus, or something like that. I think she'll do that, that she'd rather go down fighting, but still have a chance to become world champion."

Vollering has a somewhat more flexible outlook. “She can break away later in the race, hoping to outpace the rest on a climb,” analyzes Zonneveld, who has his doubts about that tactic. “I don't know if that's possible. I think she's outstanding, but I don't know if she can outpace Le Court, Reusser, and Ferrand-Prévot on such a short climb.”