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Demi Vollering ticks off her cycling wishlist at lightning speed.

Before Vollering turned pro just over two years ago, she set a list of goals she hoped to achieve in her first four years.

With her first monumental victory at Liège-Bastogne-Liège this spring, a series of podiums in the classics and a stage victory at the Giro d’Italia women in 2019, the SD Worx rider is struggling to keep up. own success.

“When I started training with my coach, I made a list of goals for each year. At first the goals weren’t that high, but then I saw in the first year with the Parkhotel team that I had achieved my goals very quickly. So every year I had to make my goals higher and higher, ”said Vollering. VeloNews.

Also read: Demi Vollering is a superstar in the making

“I think I completed almost all of my goals so that’s really cool. It was also really quick, as some of the goals that I had for four years are goals that I have already achieved now.

Vollering began her professional career with the Continental Parkhotel Valkenburg team, and her early performances were such that she was quickly taken over by the prolific SD Worx team as a potential successor to Anna van der Breggen when the world champion retires at the end of the season.

As Vollering’s star rises, she continues to set her goals even higher. Even with everything she’s achieved in her first two and a half seasons as a professional, she still has big goals on her four-year plan.

“In my list of four-year goals, it was also to be a champion, so a Dutch champion, a European champion or a world champion. It’s not that I want it within four years, but it’s something you think about in training. It’s a dream that every driver has, ”she said.

“Plus, the Giro is on my goal list and I’m working on my time trials. There is still a lot to do and it keeps you fresh in your mind and keeps you really motivated. “

Put everything on for cycling

Vollering’s all-in-one approach to cycling is a recent change for the Dutchwoman, but her love for the sport has a long history. Like many in the Netherlands, the ubiquitous nature of the sport allowed him to catch the virus at a young age.

The cost of running and the often difficult logistics forced her to give up her desire to run for several years.

Also read: Power analysis: how Demi Vollering won Liège-Bastogne-Liège Women

“When I was little, I always liked to ride a bike. I cycled the streets and raced the streets with friends. I did a Dutch run for schoolchildren. I think I won this race, and I thought it was so cool, ”said Vollering.

“I have two sisters and a brother, so it was difficult for my mother to cross all of Holland for cycling races, so it was only when I was 16 that I started to do real races. cyclists. I really enjoyed it, but I was neither super good nor really bad. I was somewhere in between.

Away from the race, Vollering threw himself into his studies and cycling kind of took him a back seat. She ran a bit, but she didn’t have time to train an aspiring athlete.

The enthusiasm for racing couldn’t be put aside forever and his dream of racing professionally would come back fervently.

“I always had the dream, but during the school term it kind of disappeared because you are busy with other things. Then I started to work and I think I worked for two years in different flower shops and I was so busy, but I knew when I was working there that it was not for me nor for my future ” said Vollering VeloNews.

“I have always loved being outside and playing sports. Then, when I met my boyfriend, the dream of becoming a professional cyclist came back. By then my studies were over and I also worked for almost two years. I realized what normal life was like and maybe that’s why I appreciate it more.

Eager to compete in the sport, Vollering still divided her time between running and ice skating early in her career. After a nudge from her boyfriend to give him all he could behind cycling, things really took off for Vollering.

“I met my boyfriend and he told me to stop ice skating and really ride a bike,” she said. “He saw in me a talent that I didn’t really believe in. I was more angry with him that he said I should stop ice skating, but a year later I did and started training with the coach and then all s really happened. quickly.”

Back to stage racing

After a strong spring classics campaign and a podium finish at the recent Emakumeen Nafarroako, Vollering contested her first stage race of the year at the Vuelta a Burgos Feminas – where she finished third overall behind her teammate Anna van der Breggen .

La Vuelta a Burgos was not only her first stage racing effort in 2021, but it was the first time she had done consecutive days of racing since the Setmana Ciclista Valenciana in February 2020 – where she finished third.

Burgos was a key testing ground for Vollering ahead of a return to the recently renamed Giro d’Italia Donne. Vollering has shown herself to be a promising stage rider with 13th place overall at the Giro d’Italia Internazionale Femminile 2019, and that’s something she would like to build on.

“I think I’m a bit versatile. I really like difficult races because in the end I can still do a good sprint, but I also really like stage races. I’m also looking forward to the Giro this year, ”she said.

“Last year I only did one stage race so I’m really looking forward to it. I’m a little sad that I didn’t do the Giro because you really feel that every time you do a stage race you get stronger and you recover faster.