There is a photo of Demi Vollering and Anna van der Breggen hugging at the end of the 2023 Tour de France Femmes. The younger rider had just won her first ever yellow jersey and was wearing it with pride, and Van der Breggen was in an SD Worx tracksuit, having spent the entirety race as sports director, guiding Vollering to victory through race radio. In March 2025, almost two years since that image was captured, everything has changed. There is no friendship. There is no camaraderie. Instead, there is rivalry – sharp, ferocious competition. Van der Breggen is a bike racer again and, as she said with vengeance after finishing second to Vollering at Strade Bianche: “Soon, I need to beat her.”
The two riders being on competing teams, FDJ-Suez and SD Worx-Protime, in 2025 following Van der Breggen’s comeback from retirement this season is leading to one of the greatest duels women’s cycling has seen in a long time. Saturday’s Strade was a prime example of this: the pair were the strongest riders in the race, dropping their competitors on the final ascent of Le Tolfe. The battle that ensued to the finish was engaging and complicated, largely because of the complexity of the relationship between Van der Breggen and Vollering. Their situation is unprecedented in cycling: a sports director returning to the bunch to race against the rider she has coached for years – it was always going to be dramatic.
When it comes to racing, Van der Breggen and Vollering know too much about each other. From mentality, to physicality, to strengths and weaknesses, every card that riders can usually keep close to their chests at key moments in races has already been played. It’s all on the table. At Strade Bianche, when the pair were away together during the final 10 kilometres to the line, Vollering was trying to get Van der Breggen to pull a turn on the front. But Van der Breggen knew how strongly her younger rival could perform when the final kilometre kicked up to Piazza del Campo. Likewise, Vollering knew that her former coach would not be forced to the front when she didn’t want to be. There are no longer any secret weapons.
“She wanted me to ride, but I needed some time. So I said ‘I'm not the youngest anymore,’” Van der Breggen smiled after the race. “She's such a strong rider and I know what she can do, but she knows what I can do as well. That works well together and then at one point I need to beat her, so I need to find a way, but so far today was really nice to do this.”
Vollering, who eventually took victory in the after dropping Van der Breggen in the final 300 metres, said that their rivalry this season is a signifier of how much has changed since her career began.
“It's funny because it reminds me a little bit of the old days when I was still riding for Parkhotel, for example, or the last year when she was riding, that's already four years ago,” the 28-year-old stated. “It's also a little bit of a reminder for myself now that I'm battling with her. In the past, I couldn't do it yet because I was not strong enough, so it's a good reminder to see how much I've grown and how much as a person and as a rider, I have developed. It’s actually also a bit special for myself to do battle against her.”
To have a clean break from SD Worx and completely reset this season with her move to FDJ-Suez has paid dividends for Vollering when it comes to both her physical and mental state. The fractured relationship with her former team is no secret, and she now admits that the tension at SD Worx took its toll on her performances last spring. It’s a different story in 2025.
“I feel really different this year. Last year was sometimes hard. I could not really race freely because my mind was not free. I was just full with too many worries,” the Dutchwoman stated after her win. “In the end racing is also doing a lot by your feelings. It's always hard to try and make the right decisions, but if your mind is free, it's a bit easier. There was so much going on last year with my former team, I needed to decide whether I was going to leave or stay or where I was going. I was just so unsure about the future and it was very hard personally because I'm a very loyal person.”
It’s clear that although she didn’t leave SD Worx on the best of terms, Vollering learned plenty from her time on a team both with Van der Breggen as a teammate and then coach. She’s developed into an exemplary leader on FDJ-Suez, something that her teammates praised her for after Strade Bianche. French champion Juliette Labous, for example, rode selflessly in support of Vollering on the Tuscan gravel, as motivated for a team victory as she would have been for her own chances.
“I am someone who believes that everybody needs to have a feeling that they are part of the process because then everybody can ride or work a bit harder,” Vollering said of her team’s performance in Italy. “It's important for the girls that they see I'm really grateful for all the work they do and that I really want to share this whole journey with everybody. If that happens, everyone can ride a bit more with their heart, this is the most important part because in the end emotions give you strength.”
But as much as Vollering is flourishing with her new team and is feeling happier than ever now she is outside of the SD Worx organisation, Van der Breggen is only getting better with each race. The older rider still has experience on her side, and her progression in the first few weeks of this season alone will ensure that Vollering does not get complacent. It’s still early in 2025 with big races on the calendar still to come, and this is a rivalry that is going to be fought, by both riders, until the bitter end. Strade Bianche was just the beginning of an era of women’s cycling for the ages.
