Vollering Finishes Ardennes Triple With Wonderful Sprint Win At Liege-Bastogne-Liege

For just the second time a rider has won the Ardennes triple in the same season with Demi Vollering adding Liege-Bastogne-Liege to Amstel Gold and La Fleche Wallonne on Sunday with a hugely impressive performance that ended with a fantastic sprint victory over Italy’s Elisa Longo Borghini. It is the second time in her career that Vollering has won the race.

Demi Vollering completed the Ardennes triple on Sunday with an impressive victory at Liege-Bastogne-Liege women. Vollering came into the final with just Elisa Longo Borghini for company, after Vollering’s SD Worx team-mate Marlen Reusser had the solo lead of the race for some time.

The Dutchwoman outsprinted the Italian with a powerful late kick to complete the triple after winning Amstel Gold and La Fleche Wallonne earlier in the season.

Before the race Vollering appeared to be feeling, or at least aware of, the pressure, but once she was on the bike she remained cool from first kilometre to last.

The hilly 142km ride through the Ardennes began with a polite roll-out of 139 riders from the town of Bastogne on the Luxembourg border. Heading directly south to north meant a warm tailwind would be on their backs for more or less the duration of the day.

There were a flurry of early attacks, including one by Kim Cadzow (Jumbo Visma) which did not last long, before Séverine Eraud (Cofidis) achieved more of a lead and stayed solo for some 25km until she too was absorbed by the bunch.

On the third categorised climb of the day, the Cote de Stockeu, a strong quintet comprising Marlen Reusser (SD Worx), Amanda Spratt (Trek-Segafredo), Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon//Sram), Esmée Peperkamp (Team DSM), Anna Henderson (Jumbo-Visma), were able to open up a gap of around 20 seconds. It was a move that would shape the race and its team composition put all the onus on Movistar to take charge of the bunch. They duly obliged.

By the Col du Rosier, the five had built an advantage of just over a minute, but a puncture for Niewiadoma on the descent put pay to her chances. The Polish rider returned to the bunch and took up a position assisting the chase.

Peperkamp and Henderson struggled to keep up with the pace set by Reusser on La Redoute, and though Spratt could hold the Swiss rider’s wheel for most of the climb, she too fell away, going over the top 25 seconds to the good.

Reusser made the most of her time trialling prowess, staying strong and steady in the saddle onto and over the Cote des Forges, the penultimate categorised climb.

Only on the Cote de Roche-aux-Faucons, with its gradients in the low to mid teens, did Reusser’s lead come down significantly. She was only caught towards the top and it was Elisa Longo-Borghini (Trek-Segafredo) and Elise Chabbey (Canyon Sram) who caught her initially, then team-mate Demi Vollering eased her way onto the back of the group.

A smart decision by Vollering to let the wheel go on the descent left Longo-Borghini and Reusser out front again, briefly, until Vollering made one strong effort to bridge across when the road rose again, displacing her hard-working team-mate at the head of affairs in a two-up race for the finish.
A small, residual pack of riders behind had neither the strength, the cooperation or the opportunity to get back on terms. Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) appeared to be lacking the top-end power and her team-mate Liane Lippert could contribute little to the chase.

With 5km remaining Vollering and Longo-Borghini had solid lead of 20 seconds and seemed set for a sprint showdown on the streets of Liege. Vollering was as cool as can be coming into the finale, sticking to the Italian’s wheel like glue and forcing her to lead it out. Longo-Borghini left it late, but Vollering had no difficulties in coming round and going past. No photo needed to decide this one.

The Dutch rider became just the second rider to achieve that feat after her coach Anna van der Breggen, in 2017. It is the second time that Vollering has won Liege-Bastogne-Liege.

In the battle for the final podium place, Marlen Reusser was the strongest of the four, to bring up the latest of many double podium finishes for Team SD Worx this spring.

“It’s amazing,” said Vollering afterwards. “I cannot believe it. I’m so grateful to my teammates and super proud. I was really happy that Elisa wanted to work with me then in the last K we really had to gamble. I knew I could gamble because I had Marlen behind me of course. That made it a bit easier for me. I’m just happy I could win the sprint and bring it home.”