Demi Vollering: “Today was about daring to lose”

Demi Vollering (FDJ United – Suez) declared that “today was about daring to lose”, after winning the Women’s Giro d’Italia in the ninth and final stage, of 145 kilometers, with an attack that left behind Anna van der Breggen on the last climb.

“It’s crazy, I can’t describe this. It feels unreal. Today was about daring to lose, and I was capable of it,” he declared in the post-stage interview with the media of the race organization.

The current European champion He adds his first ‘pink jersey’ to a record that already included a Tour de France and two Tours of Spain. This season, he had already won the Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana, the Omloop Nieuwsblad, the Tour of Flanders, the Flecha Wallonne and the Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

The winner explained how she had experienced the stage: “We made this plan last night, at dinner. We joked about preparing for a day that was going to be long and hard for us. My teammates set a great pace on the first climb, Lauren (Dickson) was great today. I let Antonia (Niedermaier) go (on the descent).”

“I told Anna (van der Breggen) that being second or third didn’t matter to me, that it was up to her to work. I went all out on the last climb, I had to do the time trial of my life, but there was a long way to go. I can’t believe it,” he concluded, about the final attack, after staying with his rival for the general classification in the chasing group behind Niedermaier, Longo Borghini and Fisher-Black.

Van der Breggen She had previously given her point of view on that attempt to hunt Niedermaier: “I can’t follow all the attacks. It was going well if we worked together, but Demi (Vollering) wasn’t pulling, and she attacked, I tried to follow her but I wasn’t strong enough. If I work and Demi (Vollering) doesn’t, obviously I’m not going to win, because I’m on the worse climb.”

The Giro overall victory is the 65th victory in the Dutchwoman’s career as a professional. Vollering did not see it clearly until the last moment: “There were 20 km left to finish and I was thinking: ‘Let’s see if I can reach the finish line’. It was very fast, and at the end I was flying, it gave me wings to see that maybe it was possible. When I saw the gap with Anna (van der Breggen), I saw that I had to give it my all.”

With this victory, she completes the trilogy of grand tours, something that only her compatriot Annemiek van Vleuten had achieved in the women’s category. “I know how easy it is to lose a grand tour. Sometimes you think that the normal thing is to win, but it is not,” he said.