When Demi Vollering stood atop the podium at the Tour de France Femmes in 2023, it wasn’t just the culmination of years of relentless training and sacrifice; it was the realisation of a dream that began as a child among rows of hydrangeas in her family’s greenhouses in the Netherlands.
Raised in Pijnacker, a small town just outside The Hague, Vollering grew up immersed in the flower industry. Following in her family’s footsteps, she studied floral design, but her passion lay far from greenhouses and flower petals. Her dream was on the wide-open road. Her passion was sports.
From an early age, Vollering combined cycling and speed skating. But as her talent on the bike began to outpace everything else, she gave up on ice skating, quit work and went all in on chasing her two-wheeled dream.
She turned professional in 2019, and the rest, as they say, is history. In just a few short years, Vollering has become one of the greatest female cyclists of her generation.
Liège–Bastogne–Liège, Amstel Gold, La Flèche Wallonne Féminine, Strade Bianche Donne, The Women’s Tour of Britain, Vuelta España Femenina, and the Tour de France Femmes. She has won some of the most prestigious races in cycling, and many of them more than once. A dream turned into reality.
