Demi Vollering became the second woman to win the Giro d’Italia Women, La Vuelta Femenina, and the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift after her triumph in Italy on Sunday.
With one day to go at the Giro, it looked like Vollering‘s dream was over. The Dutchwoman, aiming for her first pink jersey, and the first part of her Giro-Tour goal, remained 49 seconds behind race leader Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) heading into the final stage. Her opportunity to turn the race around on the Sestriere stage had been dashed, after snow and ice shortened the day and took out the final climb.
The FDJ United-Suez rider was disappointed after winning on the curtailed stage eight, but managed to turn it around with a tactical masterclass on the final day to clinch the race overall. She put over two minutes into Van der Breggen to win, with Antonia Niedermaier (Canyon-SRAM) leapfrogging into second-place. The dream was not dead.
“I gave it my all on the final climb; it was the time trial of my life,” Vollering said after the race.
“I had to be ready to take risks, even if it meant losing everything. I did it, we did it. I can hardly believe it.”
The lead-up to this moment began in 2023, as Vollering soared over the finish in the Tour de France Femmes to take the overall win. A year later, it was the turn of the Vuelta. Now aged 29, Vollering has completed the set in Italy: a pink jersey to line up with a yellow and red.
But she’s not the first woman to complete the set. Annemiek van Vleuten took the triple back in 2023. The Dutch rider left the sport having won the biggest Grand Tours in the calendar, as well as Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes, Strade Bianche Donne, the Olympic time trial and multiple road world titles.
Yet, had Van Vleuten retired at the age Vollering secured the triple crown, she would never have been able to win all three races – because they didn’t exist yet. The Tour de France Femmes was only launched in 2022. This year, Jonas Vingegaard became the eighth male rider to win all three Grand Tours.
The Grand Tour triple crown is therefore not only an incredible sporting achievement; it’s a reminder of the opportunities only recently afforded to the women’s peloton; a record of the talent rapidly developing within it, and a reminder of the feats one can accomplish despite being firmly within an age bracket the sport deems “mature”.
“Today was purely about daring to lose,” Vollering said. “I had to dare to lose everything, and I did.”
Demi Vollering will next line up at the Tour de Suisse on the 17 June.
Explore More
