'I never suffered as much as last year' - Demi Vollering returns to Tour de France Femmes with deep will to win

They were four seconds that changed everything. At the summit of Alpe d’Huez, as Kasia Niewiadoma pushed herself across the line, the clock stopped with moments to spare. The narrowest winning margin in the history of the Tour de France had fallen in the favour of the Canyon-SRAM rider. She lifted her bike above her head in glory. Sat on the floor up the road, Demi Vollering, the stage winner and second overall, burst into tears.

Those four seconds have been spoken about a lot since. For Niewiadoma, they’ve been precious – life-changing even – while, for almost a year, the ticking clock has haunted Vollering. To the surprise of neither, as they sit together in a joint press conference on the eve of this year’s Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, those seconds are the topic of conversation again.

It was the smallest of gaps that separated the pair last year. Now, in an exhibition hall in Vannes, all that sits between them is EF Education-Oatly's Cédrine Kerbaol, a local Breton rider, plonked in the middle of the top riders’ roundtable.

Asked what she thinks of the duo beside her, Vollering begins to laugh. “I can only say good things now, I think” the FDJ-SUEZ rider smiles. But there’s no masking her desire to reclaim the yellow jersey she earned in 2023. “It’s a really big goal for me, so I want to win it, of course, very, very much,” she says firmly.

The Dutchwoman’s challenge last year unravelled on day five, when she crashed inside 7km to go, and lost almost two minutes to Niewiadoma. Vollering later revealed that she broke her tailbone on impact. Over the next few stages she’d claw back time, but would ultimately, and famously, fall four seconds short.

Does the heartbreak give her extra motivation this time round? “I don’t know if it’s a motivation, really. But of course it’s something that can help me, maybe, if I’m really suffering this year,” Vollering says. “I think I never suffered as much as last year with a broken back. Of course, when I’m suffering this year I can always think back on this that it can always be worse.

Still, she adds, “I’m more living in the now at the moment. It’s just something I really want to do now, and I’m focused on now, not so much thinking about last year.”

It’s this same attitude that Niewiadoma is taking into her title defence.

“I feel like I’ve been asked about that day so many times,” the Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto rider says of 2024’s finale. “It was a great memory we made, it was a great celebration for the whole team, but it’s a new year, a new beginning. To be honest, in a couple of days, everyone will forget last year’s edition. It only matters what’s ahead and what’s now.”

All three riders, Kerbaol included, are expecting a tough edition this year. At nine days and 1,165km, the race is longer than any of the previous three vintages; it opens with a punchy weekend in Brittany, and closes with two dizzying days in the Alps. There's little space for let-up in the middle.

The spread of talent across the peloton has reached a new level, too. Alongside the two previous yellow jerseys on the start list are the recent Giro d’Italia Women winner Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ), former world champions Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Visma-Lease a Bike) and Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime), as well as last year’s third-placed rider Pauliena Rooijakkers (Fenix-Deceuninck), Marlen Reusser (Movistar), and Kerbaol, France’s new GC hope, wedged between the two favourites.

“I do believe that this year’s edition will be the hardest,” says Niewiadoma. “It’s going to be hard because of the course, but also there are a lot of teams that are able to stay in the front and make everything hard for others.”

With a smile on her face, Vollering says she’s “looking forward to a battle”.

Four seconds made the difference last year. It might not be so close come next Sunday, but there will have to be a winning margin. Niewiadoma, Vollering, and all of their rivals will do their best to make it swing for them.