Demi Vollering (SD Worx) paid tribute to a new philosophy of 'feeling the moment' as she dropped into Belgium and sailed to victory at Dwars door Vlaanderen.
The Dutchwoman helped Lotte Kopecky to victory at Omloop Het Nieuwsblad before beating her in a direct sprint at Strade Bianche, and on Wednesday confirmed she'd share leadership and top-favourite status for the Tour of Flanders.
Vollering profited from another typically strong SD Worx display, in which her teammates softened up the rivals with repeated attacks before the winning move was made over the final climb in Nokere. It was clinical and, as the chasers attacked each other in turn, Vollering calmly soloed to the line with a lead of over half a minute.
"Just don't think too much," Vollering said, admitting she'd been guilty of exactly that in the past.
"Last year I wanted to be there too much, also because I felt I needed to do this for the team. I was maybe always trying to be ahead of situations and that's not good in racing. In racing you need to feel the moment.
"I learned a lot last year and that's made me a lot stronger for this year. I think I'm already a step further tactically, and in terms of race understanding."
Vollering revealed she has worked closely with a psychologist to try and remove the stress and anxiety from her racing, also highlighting team director and highly-decorated former pro Anna van der Breggen and team boss Danny Star as important influences in her development.
"It's been a bit of a combination from the team. I had good talk end of the season with Danny and Anna which helped a lot," she said.
"I also worked a together with mental coach, where we really work on growing as a person and as a rider. There you also learn to know yourself better and better, to work on both your strong points and your weak points, and that helped a lot.
Vollering will now take aim at the Tour of Flanders, where she joins reigning champion Kopecky and Gent-Wevelgem winner Marlen Reusser in a luxury leadership trio for SD Worx. The 26-year-old was fifth for Parkhotel Valkenburg in 2020 and seventh during her first season at SD Worx, but looks to have hit the ground running this year as her career goes from strength to strength.
"We'll race like always. We need to try to be as good as possible again in Flanders of course, but I think it's really nice that we win so much the last times – that gives a good feeling in the team," Vollering said.
"For the other teams it's really difficult to predict what we're going to plan because we're really strong in numbers."
