Demi Vollering
Adriana Geertruida "Demi" Vollering is a Dutch professional racing cyclist who rides for UCI Women's WorldTeam FDJ–Suez. Considered one of the greatest riders of her generation, she has achieved major successes in both one-day classics and stage races.
In the monuments, she has won two editions of Liège–Bastogne–Liège, in 2021 and 2023. The latter completed an "Ardennes triple" of winning the Amstel Gold Race, La Flèche Wallonne and Liège–Bastogne–Liège in the same season, becoming only the second woman in history to achieve this feat. She won the Tour de France Femmes in 2023 and has twice won the general classification at La Vuelta Femenina, in 2024 and 2025.
In 2023 and 2025, she topped the year-end UCI world rankings, winning the prestigious Vélo d'Or in 2023.
Early life
Adriana Geertruida Vollering, known by the roepnaam "Demi", was born in Pijnacker, Netherlands on 15 November 1996. She is the oldest of four siblings, including fellow cyclist Bodine Vollering who made her professional debut with VolkerWessels Cycling Team in 2025.Following in the footsteps of her flower-growing family, Vollering initially worked as a florist and earned a qualification in Floral Design.
Until 2019, Vollering also trained in speed skating, competing nationally in the Netherlands. As a youngster, speed skating was her primary sport, and it was only in 2017, after a cycling holiday to the Ardennes that her partner convinced her to focus on the sport full-time.
Professional career
2019–2020: breakthrough
2019
Having raced in 2018 as an amateur with the domestic SwaboLadies.nl team, Vollering signed her first professional contract in 2019 with Dutch team Parkhotel Valkenburg.Her first spring campaign as a professional cyclist was a successful one, with top-10 finishes at the Amstel Gold Race, La Flèche Wallonne and a first monument podium at Liège–Bastogne–Liège.
In May 2019, Vollering achieved her first professional victory: a 2.7km prologue at the Festival Elsy Jacobs in Luxembourg, taking the leader's jersey in the process. She followed this up in October 2019, with a second pro win at the Giro dell'Emilia, beating Elisa Longo Borghini in a two-rider sprint at the top of the Madonna di San Luca climb.
2020
In the COVID-19 affected 2020 season, Vollering continued to impress in WorldTour races, coming third at both La Course by Le Tour de France and La Flèche Wallonne, in addition to top-10 results on the cobbles at Gent–Wevelgem and the Tour of Flanders.Following two successful seasons with Parkhotel Valkenburg, it was announced that Vollering would be joining UCI WorldTeam SD Worx from the 2021 season onwards.
2021–2024: SD Worx, Tour de France and stage race dominance
2021
Vollering started the season strongly with top-10 finishes at Strade Bianche and the Tour of Flanders. She then finished as runner-up at De Brabantse Pijl, celebrating as she crossed the line only to find out she had been pipped by Ruth Winder's late bike throw.In the Ardennes classics, Vollering started the week with an impressive second place to Marianne Vos at the Amstel Gold Race, followed by a tenth-place finish at La Flèche Wallonne. Vollering then took her first career monument victory at Liège–Bastogne–Liège, winning the sprint from a five-rider group containing Annemiek van Vleuten, Elisa Longo Borghini, Kasia Niewiadoma and teammate Anna van der Breggen.
At what was to be the final edition of La Course by Le Tour de France, Vollering took her second WorldTour victory of the season, winning the sprint in Landerneau from an eight-rider group.
In July, Vollering took her first podium in major tour at the Giro in Italy, finishing in third place behind her teammates Anna van der Breggen and Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio. This included second-place finishes on the stage 4 time trial to Cascata del Toce and the stage 9 summit finish up Monte Matajur.
Vollering competed in the road race at the delayed 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, placing 25th. She also achieved top-10 finishes in the UEC European Championships and UCI World Championships road races.
In October, Vollering won her first career stage race at The Women's Tour. After helping teammate Amy Pieters claimed victory on stage 1, Vollering took the leader's jersey by winning the stage 3 by winning 16.6km stage 3 time trial in Atherstone, putting more than a minute into her competitors in the process.
2022
Vollering had a strong spring classics campaign, winning De Brabantse Pijl, coming second at Omloop het Nieuwsblad and the Amstel Gold Race, and taking the third spot on the podium at La Flèche Wallonne and Liège–Bastogne–Liège.In the inaugural edition of Itzulia Women, Vollering won all three stages and the general classification. The following week at the Vuelta a Burgos, Vollering took victory in the final stage to Lagunas de Neila, finishing third overall behind Juliette Labous and Évita Muzic.
Vollering's impressive results meant she went into the first edition of the rebooted women's Tour de France as one of the two big favourites alongside Annemiek van Vleuten. She finished the race as the runner-up to Van Vleuten after consecutive second-place finishes on stages 7 and 8 in the Vosges mountains. In the process, she won the iconic polka dot jersey as the leading rider in the mountains classification.
In September, Vollering added her fourth stage race podium of the season, finishing in third place overall at the Challenge by La Vuelta.
2023
The 2023 season saw Vollering complete her rise to superstardom with one of the most dominant years in cycling history.In March, Vollering won her first Strade Bianche on the white gravel roads of Tuscany in a photo finish ahead of teammate Lotte Kopecky. The race was noted for a dramatic incident with 16 kilometres to go, when a horse ran onto the course in front of Vollering, briefly holding her up on the narrow stretch of road.Vollering added a second victory of the season in her next race at Dwars door Vlaanderen, before finishing as runner-up to her teammate Kopecky in the first monument of the season at the Tour of Flanders. Another second place followed at De Brabantse Pijl, as Vollering was beaten in a sprint in Overijse by Silvia Persico.
The following week, Vollering became just the fourth rider in history to win the "Ardennes triple" of the Amstel Gold Race, La Flèche Wallonne and Liège–Bastogne–Liège in the same season. At the Amstel Gold Race, Vollering cemented another SD Worx one-two ahead of Lotte Kopecky, soloing to victory in the final kilometres after a late attack over the top of the Cauberg. A few days later at La Flèche Wallonne, Vollering attacked from a reduced group at the bottom of the Mur de Huy to take a dominant victory. Vollering completed the Ardennes triple in Liège by outsprinting Elisa Longo Borghini in a two-up finish.
Vollering's electric form did not slow as racing moved to Spain after the early-season classics. At La Vuelta, she took the leader's red jersey after winning stage 5 to the Mirador de Peñas Llanas in Riaza. She would then lose the jersey on stage 6 in a controversial incident. Having stopped for a nature break and not yet returned to the peloton, Movistar and their leader Annemiek van Vleuten upped the pace in a section of crosswinds, splitting the peloton and leaving Vollering and her SD Worx teammates chasing for the following 70 kilometres to the finish. She was able to limit her losses on the stage to one minute and four seconds but this meant losing the general classification lead to Van Vleuten heading into the final stage. On stage 7, Vollering distanced Van Vleuten on the final climb to Lagos de Covadonga, winning the stage and securing ten bonus seconds. However, she was unable to overhaul the entirety of her deficit, ultimately finishing the race in second place, just nine seconds behind the winner Van Vleuten.
In the following Spanish races, Vollering won the first two stages of Itzulia Women, before taking second place on the final stage and finishing as runner-up to teammate Marlen Reusser in the general classification. She then went one better at the Vuelta a Burgos, winning another two stages on her way to the overall race victory.
In June, Vollering finished second to teammate Reusser in the general classification at the Tour de Suisse. She then claimed her first career Dutch National Road Race Championship, launching an attack on the final lap of a hilly route around Sittard.
At the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, it was once again Vollering and Van Vleuten who were expected to battle it out for the yellow jersey in a renewal of their blossoming rivalry. Going into the final two stages, it was Vollering's SD Worx teammate Lotte Kopecky who held the race lead, with a 55-second lead over Van Vleuten and fellow contender Kasia Niewiadoma, with Vollering a further 12 seconds in arrears. Stage 7 was a Pyrenean epic, and atop the Col d'Aspin with 30 kilometres remaining, only Vollering, Van Vleuten and Niewiadoma remained at the head of the race. Vollering and Van Vleuten marked each other profusely, allowing Niewiadoma to steal a march into the final climb up the Col du Tourmalet. Yet it was Vollering who dealt the killer blow, launching an attack with 5.5km to go, and arriving at the top through the mist with an almost two-minute gap over second-placed Niewiadoma. Wearing the yellow jersey on stage 8 in Pau, Vollering rode a strong time trial to finish in second place on the stage and secure her first major tour general classification victory.
Following her Tour de France win, Vollering claimed the silver medal behind Lotte Kopecky at the UCI World Championships road race in Glasgow and later the bronze medal at the UCI Gravel World Championships in Veneto. She also won a stage and the overall classification at the Tour de Romandie.
Vollering's dominant season saw her top the year-end UCI world rankings and she was awarded the prestigious Vélo d'Or.