After the Italian surge in the Classics, Dutch stars powered to the most stellar results last month on the roads of the UCI Women’s WorldTour. The Vuelta a Burgos Feminas (19-22 May) crowned the Frenchwoman Juliette Labous (Team DSM), ahead of her compatriot Evita Muzic (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope), but it also witnessed an impressive performance from Demi Vollering (Team SD Worx) on the slopes of Lagunas de Neila (stage 4) after she had ruled Itzulia Women (13-15 May) with three stage wins in as many days of racing.
Her compatriot Lorena Wiebes (Team DSM) was equally as dominant in the last UCI Women’s WorldTour event of the month, RideLondon Classique (27-29 May), the one-day race having been extended to a three-stage event this year. And Wiebes sprinted to victory on each occasion, ahead of the likes of the UCI Road World Champion Elisa Balsamo (Trek-Segafredo) and Lotte Kopecky (Team SD Worx). The Belgian Kopecky retains the lead of the UCI Women’s WorldTour rankings, but Vollering (3rd) and Wiebes (6th) are building pressure in an increasingly tight competition.
Two SDWorx riders are battling at the top of the #uciwwt rankings!
— UCI_WWT (@UCI_WWT) May 30, 2022
Lotte Kopecky is back at the top of the individual standing!
Trek Segafredo's Shirin van Anrooij is the top young rider. Still! pic.twitter.com/jAIvrx6Ggi
Vollering flies over the Spanish climbs
In April, Vollering had already showed the strength and skills that make her a strong successor for Anna van der Breggen on hilly terrains, winning De Brabantse Pijl - La Flèche Brabançonne and podiuming at Amstel Gold Race Ladies Edition (2nd), La Flèche Wallonne Féminine (3rd) and Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes (3rd). But the 25-year-old wanted more, and after another strong outing in the Ceratizit Festival Elsy Jacobs (4th overall), she headed to Spain to rack up victories.Labastida, Mallabia and San Sebastian - all three stage finishes of Itzulia Women saw Vollering take the win. She capped off her three days with a solo win in the last stage, securing the overall win 47’’ ahead of her Dutch compatriot Pauliena Rooijakkers.
"This is something I can cross off my bucket list,” Vollering celebrated after she completed her hat trick. “This race was made for us with all those climbs. If I win here, it is thanks to my teammates. It is very cool to win this race for the first time ever.”
Only two days later, a nasty crash in Durango-Durango Emakumeen Sario forced her out of the race, but Vollering quickly bounced back to participate in the Vuelta a Burgos Feminas and win the queen stage on the iconic slopes of Lagunas de Neila. “Certain parts are very steep and there was head wind,” she described. “So I'm happy I was able to take the stage win. Unfortunately, the general classification was not possible anymore. I will definitely come back with the goal to win the Vuelta a Burgos.”
Before that, Vollering still has a lot on her plate this season, and mostly the coming first edition of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift at the end of July.
If it’s a sprint, it’s Wiebes for the win
After a small break following the Classics campaign, Wiebes also returned to competition with strong confidence built upon her sprint successes, most notably in the Miron Ronde van Drenthe.
She didn’t wait long to strike again, outsprinting Elisa Balsamo and Emma Norsgaard (Movistar Team Women) in Maldon to take stage 1 of the RideLondon Classique. “I think we can look back on this stage with a lot of confidence for the next days,” she hinted.
Indeed, her teammates controlled the finale on the hillier routes leading to Epping, where she took stage 2 ahead of Marta Bastianelli (UAE Team ADQ) and Norsgaard. “We’re looking forward to tomorrow and going for it one more time here to get the best result possible,” she then warned the peloton.
And, again, there was no preventing Wiebes from sprinting to victory in London, where she had already dominated the 2019 edition of the RideLondon Classique (the event couldn’t be held in 2020 and 2021).
As the main figure of the three days, Wiebes highlighted her teammates’ work: “Without the team the last three days were not possible. It was really a team effort, I think a lot of people forget that but cycling is a team sport.”
In the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, she’s expected to share leading duties with climbing talents such as Labous.
Lorena Wiebes moves up four places to 6th in the UCI Women’s WorldTour Rankings, while Demi Vollering is in third place behind her SD Worx teammate Lotte Kopecky (Belgium) and Trek - Segafredo’s Elisa Balsamo (Italy).