Demi Vollering takes the yellow jersey early after an impressive time trial

Demi Vollering powered to victory on stage three of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift on Tuesday afternoon and took over the overall race lead.

The defending champion’s time of 7:25 in the individual time trial through the streets of Rotterdam was enough to win the stage and take the yellow jersey, with Charlotte Kool (dsm-firmenich PostNL) coming in 25 seconds down. Kool led the race after winning both the first and second stages, but now sits 33rd overall.

Speaking through tears after her win was confirmed, Vollering said she "really didn’t see this coming."

"I had no idea that I could do this today," Vollering said. "I’m really surprised actually. These first days were just days that I needed to survive. I wanted to really enjoy these first days and actually I had the whole time tomorrow already in the head, because tomorrow’s stage I really love.

"I really like the Liège–Bastogne–Liège race and so today, in the road race, I was already thinking a little bit about tomorrow and then after the race, until the time trial, I slept two times and relaxed. I did two times a power nap and so I really didn’t see this coming, I’m really surprised."

On the way to overall victory last year, Vollering sensationally won atop the Col du Tourmalet on stage seven which saw her take yellow and all but confirm victory. When asked how her time trial win on home soil compared to winning on the Tourmalet, Vollering said that both victories brought similar emotions, particularly due to her stage three win on Thursday being so unexpected.

She said: "That [the Tourmalet stage] was the stage that I really needed to do it, then here I had no expectations at all. I was not even thinking of the podium today, I really thought it could be one for the sprinters and powerful time trialists. But my teammate said 'this is really a course for you' then at the start I just flew into it… It was a strange day for me, I really can’t believe it yet."

When asked whether taking yellow would change her outlook for the rest of the race, she added: "It’s up to the other teams of course to take the jersey from our team now, so it’s nice that I have it but we will see. For sure we will try our best to defend it until the very end but yeah, the plan was to actually take it a little later in the week so I’m surprised to have it now already."

How it happened

After Charlotte Kool (dsm-firmenich PostNL) made it two wins from two on Tuesday morning’s stage two, the third stage of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift was a short race against the clock through the streets of Rotterdam, after the riders had arrived in the Dutch city earlier that day.

Going into the time trial, it was widely expected that Kool would lose the leader’s yellow jersey to the likes of SD Worx’s Demi Vollering, or another overall favourite for victory.

Lois Adegeest (FDJ Suez) led the stage for much of the afternoon, setting a time of 07:30 across the course which stage favourite, Ellen van Dijk (Lidl-Trek) narrowly missed by just a single second. Double Olympic champion, Kristen Faulkner (EF–Oatly–Cannondale) then finished just 0.7 seconds slower than Adegeest.

Female British national time trial champion was the next rider amongst the favourites for the stage win to finish. Henderson took fifth, just six seconds down on Adegeest.

World time trial champion Chloé Dygert was the rider who finally displaced Adegeest from the top of the leaderboard. The American rider on Canyon-SRAM finished just 0.17 seconds quicker than Adegeest, which subsequently moved Dygert to the top of the leaderboard.

British national road champion, Pfeiffer Georgi (dsm-firmenich PostNL) came home in ninth, just over ten seconds down on Dygert. Mischa Bredwold (SD Worx-Protime) and Emma Noorsgaard (Movistar) were the next two riders to finish, coming in four and five seconds down on Dygert respectively.

Defending champion Demi Vollering toppled Dygert, finishing five seconds quicker than the American with a time of 7:25. Vollering was level on time with Dygert at the intermediate time check, but then made up five seconds on the run to the finish, holding an unmatchable average speed of 59.5 kmph across the course.

Vollering's superb display meant that she took over the race lead after Kool finished 25 seconds down, moving to 33rd overall behind her fellow Dutchwoman.

Results

Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift stage three: Rotterdam > Rotterdam (ITT, 6.3 km)

1. Demi Vollering (Ned) SD Worx-Protime, in 07:25
2. Chloe Dygert (USA) Canyon-SRAM, +5s
3. Loes Adegeest (Ned) FDJ-Suez,
4. Cedrine Kerbaol (Fra) Certaizit-WNT Pro Cycling, all same time
5. Kristen Faulkner (USA) EF-Oatly-Cannondale , +6s
6. Ellen van Dijk (Ned) Lidl-Trek, at same time
7. Lorena Wiebes (Ned) SD Worx-Protime, +9s
8. Mischa Bredewold (Ned) SD Worx-Protime, at same time
9. Emma Noorsgard (Den) Movistar +10s
10. Anna Henderson (Gbr) Visma-Lease a Bike, +11s

General Classification after stage three

1. Demi Vollering (Ned) SD Worx-Protime, in 04:27:54
2. Lorena Wiebes (Ned) SD Worx-Protime, +3s
3. Cloe Dygert (Usa) Canyon-SRAM, +5s
4. Lois Adegeest (Ned) FDJ Suez,
5. Charlotte Kool (dsm-firmenich Post NL
6. Cedrine Kerbaol (Fra) Certaizit-WNT Pro Cycling, all same time
7. Kristen Faulkner (Usa) EF-Oatly-Cannondale, +6s
8. Ellen van Dijk (Ned) Lidl-Trek, at same time
9. Mischa Bredewold (Ned) SD Worx-Protime, +9s
10. Emma Noorsgard (Den) Movistar +10s