Demi Vollering sprints straight to third place in first race after COVID infection caused her to miss the World Championships

Demi Vollering sprints straight to third place in first race after COVID infection caused her to miss the World Championships

"This went better than I expected"

07/10/2022

Team SD Worx colored the first stage of the Tour de Romandie, Demi Vollering sprinted to third place. The new Swiss Worldtour race was Vollering's first race since the Ceratizit Challenge by la Vuelta. She had to watch the World Championships from her hotel room in Australia due to a COVID infection, but in Lausanne she was at it again. "I didn't expect to be so strong already today, that only motivates me for what is still to come."

Linked race Tour de Romandie - Linked cyclists Demi Vollering - Gekoppelde ploegleiders: Anna van der Breggen Danny Stam

Demi Vollering drew motivation from the missed World Championships in Wollongong to once again go all out in the Tour de Romandie. "I was terribly disappointed when I followed the World Championship on TV my hotel room. Especially when that elite group separated on Mount Pleasant. Normally I should have been in that. This could have been a great race for me too. It made me realise how much I love racing and love the game. That gave me a lot of motivation to get out that last bit before the Tour de Romandie, to finish my season in the best possible way. So it served as a source of motivation."

In the first stage, Team SD Worx coloured the race. From 30 kilometres before the end, it rained attacks. Demi Vollering opened the debates, followed by Anna Shackley, Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio and Marlen Reusser. "Beforehand, we had determined that we would race with an open mind. We are only with four riders here, so it is not up to us to control the race. We wanted to make the race hard. Thirty kilometres from the end, we got the signal from the car to attack in turn. As a result, we thinned the group fiercely, but unfortunately we didn't get away."

When a final attack by Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio was stranded 2 kilometres from the end, Team SD Worx changed the rifle's shoulder. "Ashleigh came to me and asked if I wanted to sprint. At the same time, Marlen Reusser lurked in the back to possibly make a late attack if the opportunity arose. I have quite a good final sprint, but positioning is very important and when you haven't sprinted for a while, that feeling is less there."

After which Vollering sprinted to third place. "This is unexpected and I am happy with this result. My training sessions were not too good after the COVID infection, but yesterday I had a better feeling on the recon. Today I didn't feel super at times, but I was very keen to race and on motivation you can also do a lot. The second stage with the mountain top finish really offers opportunities for us. We are here with four very strong climbers. If we can play that off, we can definitely make it difficult for the rest. We are already looking forward to tomorrow's stage."

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