Demi Vollering closes historic season with 16 wins and three major titles in 2026

He only has one race left in 2026. Demi Vollering is preparing to complete a season with a surreal record. The Dutchwoman simply won the women's Tour de France, the Tour of Italy, but also became world champion for the first time. Saturday October 3, she retained her title of European champion and signed her 16th success of the year in a list which also includes Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the Flèche wallonne and the Tour of Flanders.

"It's a golden year, but it's already over. There will be the time trial [of the European championships in Slovenia] on Wednesday and it will already be the end of the season. I'm already very impatient to ride with this rainbow jersey next year and to have another great season", reacted the resident of the French team FDJ United-Suez on Saturday, with emotions necessarily less strong than a week earlier in Montreal, where she had won the race that was most missing from his rich record.

Better than Van Vleuten 2022 according to his manager

In history, never has a runner managed to do the World Championships-European Championships double (which have only existed since 2016). In the recent past of this women's peloton which has progressed exponentially over the past ten years, only one rider is approaching the 2026 vintage of Demi Vollering. In 2022, Annemiek van Vleuten also won the women's Tour de France - the very first edition -, the Giro, the world championships, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and the Het Nieuwsblad. The Dutch pioneer had even put the Vuelta on her radar, a race which was not on Vollering's program in 2026. But Van Vleuten had not participated in the European Championships, had neither won the Walloon Flèche nor the Tour of Flanders and had ended the year with three fewer successes (13).

“The 2026 Demi Vollering season is the most incredible season of a cyclist in recent years. It is slightly higher than what Annemiek van Vleuten did in 2022. It was not quite the same Grand Tours. They were shorter”, slices for franceinfo: sport Stephen Delcourt, the boss of the FDJ-United Suez team. The latter believes that his runner's record is all the more remarkable as she "did not individually dominate the most important races of the season like Tadej Pogacar among the men", but that she had to work to "finish the work of a large team around her".

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Demi Vollering only failed to achieve its goal in two races this year: on the Amstel Gold Race (3rd) and on the Strade Bianche (20th). “The only hiccup in her season was her puncture on the Strade and, at the end, she was even happier because it was her teammate (Elise Chabbey) who won,” recalls Stephen Delcourt. The framework around her evolved after a first year at FDJ United-Suez marked by her “desire to take revenge on SD Worx”, her former team which had not extended her contract. “In a good environment, and when Demi is happy as a woman, she is unbeatable this year,” said her manager.

After the time trial of the European Championships, which takes the Mozjanca climb, the one which allowed her to distance herself from her rivals on Saturday, Demi Vollering will fly to Salzburg for training with the entire FDJ United-Suez team on October 11. The opportunity to start considering your program for the 2027 season and find the right formula to extend your reign over the women's peloton.