Demi Vollering collapses on the hot tarmac. Grasping at her helmet strap, she wrestles to free her sweat-soaked head, while her FDJ United-Suez soigneur pours cold water over her shoulders. “Demi, you’re amazing,” a fan shouts through the melee of TV cameras. Vollering’s sports director then appears from out of a team car and brandishes a double thumbs-up to the sprawled-out Dutchwoman. She musters her last reserves of energy to smile back.
Stage four’s time trial went about as perfectly as it could have for Vollering. So much so, that anyone passing by the scene beyond the finish line in Dijon might have thought she had won. Instead, she finished third, 18 seconds behind the stage winner Marlen Reusser (Movistar) but, crucially, almost two minutes ahead of the defending champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike).
