Interview: Demi Vollering on inspiring the next generation

Demi Vollering is in a reflective mood. Why, I ask, does she feel the pull, the urge – the obligation? – to use her platform as world number-one to speak passionately from the heart on matters such as mental health, eating disorders, and getting kids active? Tadej Pogačar rarely expresses his thoughts on such matters, so why does she?

“In women’s sport, we know we still need to fight for our position,” says the 29-year-old. “We all know where we came from. This is so fresh in our minds, so we need to fight for our sport. We also know by doing that we can help other women.” It’s this sort of conviction that attracted Nike to partner with the Dutchwoman in 2024 – she is in a blue Nike sweater as she speaks to me by video call from her home in Switzerland.

Combined with her formidable palmarès, her direct, open-hearted approach to interviews and social media has helped cement her status as one of the most influential figures in the women’s peloton.

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Vollering was reportedly the subject of the first €1m salary offer in women’s cycling, before ultimately signing with FDJ-Suez on a deal understood to be worth around €900,000. A Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift winner and one of the sport’s defining competitors, she is also part of a generation of riders striving to change women’s cycling for the better – and forever.

It was Vollering’s childhood dream to become a professional cyclist. She literally wrote it in the diary she kept as a girl. But women’s professional cycling was still in its infancy when Vollering was growing up in the early-2000s. It was speed skating – a huge sport in the Netherlands – that most interested her. She became very good at it, too, representing her country at youth level.

The oldest of four siblings, Vollering grew up in Pijnacker in a family of flower growers, and worked as a florist herself after completing a degree in floral design. It sounds like a quintessentially Dutch upbringing, but her strongest memories are less about tulips than ice. “When we have a few cold days in the Netherlands and the rivers freeze, you feel this really special atmosphere,” she tells me. “Everyone is super happy, goes outside and plays on the icy river. I really love seeing people come together and being out in nature.”

Aged 17, she began coaching speed skating. When she noticed a big drop-off in attendance figures during the summer months, she and a friend came up with a new concept: rather than solely focusing on roller skating, they introduced multiple sports to the classes to keep the children engaged. “We had 40 kids in the first year, aged seven to 13. It was such big fun,” she smiles. “You could really see the children developing their motor skills.” She noticed profound effects in the kids. “I realised then how important it is for young people to move their body, to be outside, and to have a connection with other young humans and to learn from each other,” she says.

From a young age Vollering realised that witnessing other people’s enjoyment made her happy; she was lifted, vicariously, by their having fun. She also realised that she could help pass on that happiness. For each of her siblings’ birthday parties, “I was the one who was thinking of and organising the games they could play,” she remembers. “We’d go to the forest and build a maze. I have always enjoyed seeing others having fun.”

Fast-forward to 2025 and this longstanding goal has achieved expression in Move to Dream, Vollering’s initiative that “promotes the connection between movement, mental well-being, and dreaming big.” It’s especially important these days that efforts are made to get people active, she says, “when so many children are more likely to be kept inside by social media and digital distractions.”

Evidenced by her big wins – Tour de France Femmes, Vuelta a España (twice), Itzulia Women (thrice), and Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Strade Bianche (both twice) – Vollering has fulfilled her childhood dream. Speed skating fell away in 2018, when she joined the SwaboLadies club cycling team. One year later, she turned pro with Parkhotel Valkenburg. In 2021, Vollering joined SD Worx, where she remained until last year, when she signed for FDJ-Suez. In just five years in the World Tour, she has established herself as her generation’s most complete rider.

At the time of publication, she has recorded 58 wins – three of them at the 2026 season-opener, the Setmana Ciclista in Valencia. “It’s not like it’s a playful thing anymore,” she says of her progress through the sport. “Everything I do is followed now.”

Such is her greatness that it can seem surprising that she has won the Tour de France Femmes only once, in 2023. Losing to Annemiek van Vleuten in 2022, Vollering was reassured by her veteran compatriot that her time would come, so she need not be too upset or frustrated. “It’s nice when such strong riders say something like that about you, but I already really believed it myself that my time would come,” Vollering says. “I always had this vision of becoming better and better.”

True to van Vleuten’s prediction, Vollering won the Tour the following year, in 2023, but finished second at the following two, first to Kasia Niewiadoma and then, last year, to Pauline Ferrand-Prévot. Have these defeats stung? “Everybody just expects that I will perform, and I also expect that from myself,” she says.

“I always want to go for the biggest results.” With success comes great expectation – and responsibility. Vollering has never shirked from either. After Ferrand-Prévot’s Tour victory last year threatened to be overshadowed by a debate over her weight loss, Vollering wrote an impassioned post on social media, warning of the dangers of disordered eating. “[It] can grow quietly and stay hidden for a long time,” she wrote.

She had been similarly outspoken a few months before, at La Vuelta Femenina, dedicating her stage five victory to those struggling with their mental health. “For many people – especially young people – the mind becomes too strong in the wrong way,” she said. “It overwhelms, it isolates, it wins quietly.” I read the quote back to her and ask what motivated it.

“That day I was thinking of a person close to me who was having a really hard time,” she says, her voice briefly wavering with emotion, “so I just wanted to let people know that those struggling already have the strength inside them to get out [of the situation] and to find a place where they can get better.”

The realm of social media – where she posts photos of trail running in the mountains and bike rides with her beloved dog Flo – offers an intimate glimpse into her life beyond racing, but it poses risks, too. “We see so much from the internet nowadays of how a perfect life should look, and we can make ourselves crazy about it,” she says. “Sometimes the mind is just too strong. This can get worse and worse, not only with depression but even worse mental states. I know just by saying it it can mean a lot to people and that’s what I did that day.”

Riding for SD Worx brought with it many glories, but also some major challenges. The team being replete with so many potential race winners led, at times, to a fraught internal atmosphere – tensions that occasionally spilled out into the open, such as when Vollering and team-mate Lotte Kopecky sprinted against each other at the 2023 Strade Bianche.

At FDJ United-Suez – who are keen to extend her two-year contract beyond this season – Vollering is the undoubted leader. From the outside she looks happier. “It’s an environment where you feel everybody is really motivated and hungry to get better every day, and not afraid to pursue big dreams,” she says.

“When everybody is winning and daring to go after their big dream, even if it’s a bit too big, it makes me really happy. It’s an environment you want to be part of.” Her dream for 2026 is to complete the Giro-Tour double. The Giro d’Italia Women has moved from its traditional July slot to early June, offering Vollering the chance to become only the second woman after Van Vleuten to hold the full set of Grand Tour wins, Giro, Tour and Vuelta.

“The Tour is always my biggest goal and the Giro was not in the best place in the calendar before,” she explains. “In that period I always wanted to go on an altitude camp, but now it’s moved it’s a good reason to go there.”She believes nine days in Italy in pursuit of the maglia rosa will aid her bid to dethrone Ferrand-Prévot at the Tour. “It’s good preparation, as it’s nice to have a good stage race to go into the Tour de France,” she says. To win yellow, she has to get past ‘PFP’ who demonstrated her superior climbing ability on the longer mountain climbs last summer.

This year’s race tackles Mont Ventoux, even more difficult than the Col de la Madeleine on which Ferrand-Prévot reigned supreme last August. Possibly in Vollering’s favour is the inclusion of a 21km time trial. The Dutchwoman’s record in TTs is good – she’s not finished lower than sixth in her last 22 tests against the clock – while ‘PFP’ hasn’t raced (with the exception of the 2021 national championships) a time trial in 11 years.

Does the TT give her the edge she needs? “The nicest thing about a time trial is that you can only focus on yourself, and what the rest do doesn’t influence your results,” Vollering says, slightly sidestepping the question of if she will have the upper hand over Ferrand-Prévot. “It’s also a nice goal because at FDJ we’ve really put effort into my time trial skills, my position, the whole picture, and I feel like in just over a year I’ve really made a step forward.”

If she does win the Tour again to become the modern race’s first double winner, Vollering can expect even bigger sponsorship deals from the likes of Nike – and would surely then command the first €1m contract in women’s cycling. Money certainly isn’t her only motivation; Vollering is driven by a determination to be a positive role model, inspiring women of all ages. “I just hope that I can make a lot of people go outside and fall in love with sports – not only cycling,” she says. “I really want to play a part in giving women’s sport a little push into a better position, into a good place.”

What Demi Vollering says matters and resonates. She has influence and impact. “For men it’s a bit different,” she continues. “Their sport has been really successful and well-watched for years, so they already have a stable place. For them it’s less of a [priority] and they’re just very focused on their performances and what they’re doing.” On her own influence on younger riders, she says: “For women, it’s more natural to have a mum figure around to learn from.”