Demi Vollering spoke for the first time about her transfer saga after it was confirmed on Wednesday that she would be leaving SD Worx-Protime, stating that she was surprised by the statement made by her team in response to the news.
The team had kept questions to Vollering to sporting only as they unveiled an exhibition on the history of the team, held prior to the Tour of Flanders in Oudenaarde on Thursday, but Vollering did provide some light on the situation to Dutch media.
“I was a bit surprised by the team's statement,” Vollering told NU.nl. “But I'm not going to talk about it too much now. There will be plenty of questions about my future in the near future.”
The statement to which she is referring was put out by the team during Dwars door Vlaanderen on social media, twitter.com, and said that Vollering and her management had been presented a “generous offer” which wasn’t responded to before a deadline, leading the team to assume she was leaving.
Team Manager Erwin Janssen clarified to Cyclingnews and GCN at the team’s pre-race press event that both Vollering and Lotte Kopecky were offered big extensions at the same time and the intention was to keep both.
“We were negotiating for eight or nine months with the management of Demi. So then we made an ultimate, last offer and it was in our opinion a really good offer,” Janssen said, assuring there was no preference for Kopecky, who recently extended until 2028.
“But we know now how the market is sometimes crazy. We said ‘OK this is an ultimatum’ because we have to go on. But the management of Demi did not give go to that, so that means for us, 'OK, they don’t want to go on in the team'.”
Vollering was keen to focus on the races ahead as she continues her 2024 campaign. She had a remarkable 2023 which saw her take 17 wins, including some of the biggest races and the queen stage and yellow jersey at the Tour de France Femmes.
“I want to focus on all the competitions that will come this year, starting on Sunday with the Tour of Flanders,” she said. “I'm not thinking about saying goodbye right now.”
However for Vollering, it wasn’t only the team’s handling of her expected departure that caught her off guard, but also her own performance at Dwars door Vlaanderen where she was 96th and over four minutes down on the winner at the line.
Vollering entered the race as the defending winner but found herself not in the race-deciding moves, off the pace of eventual-winner Marianne Vos (Visma-Lease a Bike) and somewhere that she isn’t often - at the back of the race.
“Yesterday [Wednesday] was a pretty big change for me from being number one in that race to chasing the last group,” Vollering told Cyclingnews and GCN in Oudenaarde, where a rear wheel change with 25km left her on her own.
“Also in my head, I was like ‘this is a pretty big difference and not so nice’ but in the end it's racing and every race is totally different.”
Vollering won five of her first eight races in 2023 in a flying start to the best year of her career so far. She won Strade Bianche and Dwars door Vlaanderen before taking a historic Ardennes triple but isn’t enjoying the same form yet in 2024.
The Dutchwoman admitted that not having been on the top step of a podium yet “feels a bit strange because last year I had already two wins by now".
“I also try not to think too much of last year’s races. They always say you’re only as good as the last race you did, so we start over again.”
Nonetheless, Vollering still starts Sunday’s Tour of Flanders as the runner-up from last year and with a very strong SD Worx-Protime team that features big favourite Kopecky, who is aiming for a historic hat-trick at De Ronde, and Gent-Wevelgem winner Lorena Wiebes.
The 27-year-old said she didn’t feel great on the team’s pre-Flanders recon and that she would know immediately whether or not she was in contention for the victory as soon as they hit the first hills during Sunday’s 163km route.
“I find it hard to say [if I can win Flanders] because during Dwars I was really unlucky with everything, so then it also what makes you doubt a little bit,” Vollering said.
“Sunday is totally new day again so I just need to see how the form is on that day and I will feel pretty fast when the day is started and I’ve done some hills.”
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