She had no match for her. Dutchwoman Demi Vollering easily won her very first Walloon Flèche on Wednesday April 19, in Huy, Belgium. She succeeds Italian Marta Cavalli, who finished more than five minutes behind the winner this year.
The 26-year-old rider gave her rivals no chance on the final climb. Sitting on her saddle, Vollering accelerated from the first hectometres of the final climb of the Huy wall, and her passages at 26%, to claim one of the greatest victories of her career. The German Liane Lippert (Movistar) and the Italian Gaia Realini (Trek-Segafredo) accompany him on the podium. The French of the FDJ-Suez team Evita Muzic ranks 5th, ten seconds behind the Dutch.
Third in the Walloon race in 2019 and 2022, Demi Vollering confirms his good start to the season. Earlier this year, the world number 2 has already won the Strade Bianche, in Italy, and Across Flanders, in Belgium. Above all, the leader of the SD Worx team achieved a double in the Ardennes classics after her success, on April 13, during the Amstel Gold Race. Vollering will be in a position to achieve the hat-trick, on April 23, during Liège-Bastogne-Liège. To date, only his compatriot Anna van der Breggen, who is now his sports director, has managed this pass of three, in 2017.
worthy heiress of van der Breggen
After a relatively calm start, the race settled down on the second ascent of the Mur de Huy, when the first to break away were caught by the peloton of favorites. The reigning world champion, Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar), launched a first offensive, bringing with her Katarzyna Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM), Ashleigh Moolman (AG Insurance – Soudal Quick-Step) and Elisa Longo-Borghini (Trek- Segafredo).
The four fugitives will pay for this too early effort and will be taken back by the peloton, thanks to the impressive pace led by Demi Vollering and her Swiss teammate Marlen Reusser. After a first skimming on the Côte de Cherave, eight kilometers from the finish, Demi Vollering found herself at the head of a group of eleven riders, before taking off on the last ascent of the Mur de Huy, only joined for a time by Liane Lippert.
Vollering therefore brings Flèche Wallonne back into the hands of the SD Worx team. Indeed, it was under the jersey of the Dutch team (formerly Boels-Doemans) that Anna van der Breggen won the event seven times in a row between 2015 and 2021. As a worthy heiress, Demi Vollering still has several years to go. ahead of her to approach this record.
