This Sunday, our ranking of 10 most notable moments of the year 2023 continues with in 7th place tied the extraordinary hat-trick of Demi Vollering on the Ardennes triptych. This place is also synonymous with the most memorable moment for the women's peloton this season..
The beginnings of an exceptional season
Demi Vollering reached an important milestone this year by proving to all women's cycling fans that she was the best climber in the current peloton. Aged 27 years, the Dutchwoman playing under the colors of Team SD Worx has, furthermore, won the 2e edition of the Tour de France Women. She has also added other prestigious races to her list of achievements, such as the Strade Bianche or stage races such as the Tour de Burgos or the Tour de Romandie., all World Tour category races for women.
The famous Ardennes treble
But this season, one of the feats that surprised more than one, even going so far as to impress non-followers of women's cycling, is his incredible Ardennes hat-trick achieved in April. The Dutchwoman then managed to raise her arms successively in the Amstel Gold Race, La Flèche Wallone and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. he will be able to situate himself in relation to the leaders of the discipline, this feat had only been achieved by one woman, Anna van der Breggen and 2017. At men's, only Davide Rebellin and Philippe Gilbert achieved the hat-trick, respectively in 2004 and 2011. This shows the extraordinary success achieved by Demi Vollering.
To quickly summarize his three victories, she first won solo in the Amstel Gold Race, by getting ahead of 8 seconds the rest of the favorites, while it is her teammate Lotte Kopecky who will go for 2nd place. She then won the Flèche Wallone quite easily by depositing Liane Lippert and Gaia Realini in the last hectometers of the legendary Mur de Huy. To finish, she won for the second time in her career the most prestigious of the three races, namely Liège-Bastogne-Liège. At the end of a magnificent race, she raises her arms on the monument, by sprinting Elisa Longo Borghini.
This success of Demi Vollering also played a crucial role during the Vélo d’Or ceremony, which earned her the trophy for the best runner of the season 2023. Enough to add even more value to this feat. In 2024, she will have the opportunity to repeat the hat-trick to become the first runner to achieve it a second time, and this for two years in a row.
