My Dream Race – Demi Vollering

Which is the race you dream of winning, the one for which you would swap anything else? Why does it mean so much and what experience do you have of it so far?

Photography by Velofocus and Sportfoto NL

This is hard to say because I want to win a lot of races! But for me, the Spring Classics are really important, and Amstel Gold is especially nice. It’s my type of race, with lots of short hills. There is never a point where you can rest. It’s always small roads, turns, climbs… It makes the race really hard and I like that. I didn’t watch a lot of cycling on TV when I was young. I had heard of Amstel Gold Race, of course, but I only started dreaming of winning it two years ago when I went to watch the race for the first time. The next year I rode it as a professional and finished seventh! It was really cool to be in the finale with so many top riders, but at the time I was so dead. I was not really able to think straight on the last climb. After the finish, the emotions arrived and then I realised how special it was to do this race and get this result.

When I look back at what I learned from the experience, I realise that I need to ride more with my head. Near the finish I closed a gap to Marianne Vos and went to the front, so she was immediately able to sit on my wheel while I did a TT effort in the wind. When she started sprinting I had nothing left. That was stupid. It’s hard to keep your head when you’re so tired, but I learned a lot from that day. The next race was La Flèche Wallonne and I immediately used what I had learned. I saved some energy, thought more clearly through the finale about my positioning, and got fifth. I was really excited to do these races this year because I know I have trained well. I was curious about what my result could be. I feel a lot stronger and I can see my power records are all a lot higher than last year. It’s good to know and gives me a lot of confidence – now we just have to wait for the races to come back when it’s safe. It’s so much more important that the world is healthy.