Demi Vollering (FDJ-United-SUEZ) raised her right arm and punched the air as she dropped into the Piazza del Campo to cross the finish line at Strade Bianche. The defending champion and two-time winner was only the 20th rider to cross the line but, despite her own hopes going up in flames, there was a happy ending as she saw her teammate preparing to lift the trophy.
Six minutes earlier, Elise Chabbey had crossed the line with a look of complete shock on her face, landing the biggest win of her career after a complete thriller of a finale and a race as a whole.
Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) and Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) had looked to be slugging it out on the final ramps of the Via Santa Caterina, but the Swiss rider expertly nipped around them on the narrow twisting streets that led to the drop down into the Piazza del Campo.
What’s more, there were two FDJ riders on the podium, with Franziska Koch getting around Longo Borghini to claim third place.
“I’m so proud of them. We did such a perfect race, really like perfect perfect,” Vollering said.
The race may have started and ended perfectly for FDJ but there was a big bit in the middle where it threatened to go drastically awry. Just as the race was hotting up on the first passage of the Le Tolfe uphill gravel sector, Vollering suffered a puncture. She settled into what looked like a strong chase group but an even bigger nightmare was around the corner when they took a wrong turn with 33km left to race.
“I had flat tyre in worst moment ever, but I was like ‘OK I can still come back, never give up, keep pushing’. But then they sent us the wrong way, and actually that moment you saw all the riders were like ‘OK, we’ll never come back’ because all the cars went past, and we were the last in the race, I think. Then it was over. It was a pity for me.”
However, Vollering’s frustration soon turned to optimism as she heard via race radio how much Chabbey was lighting up the final gravel sectors, with Koch well in the mix as well.
“I was so excited in the radio because I could hear there was a big battle. I was like ‘come on girls, don’t give up’.
“Sometimes I tried to tell them something but I think they didn’t understand me. It wasn’t necessary apparently because they did amazing.”
Vollering was also sure to highlight the work of Amber Kraak and Lea Curinier, who did many of the hard yards early on.
“If you see what they did, the whole day on the front, then on the long gravel sector they pushed the whole way. I was like ‘woah, they’re from a different world today, they’re flying’.”
Vollering pointed out that many of the riders have an early flight to Tenerife in the morning for a training camp.
“We will maybe party all night,” she concluded.
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