Demi Vollering (Netherlands) won the women’s road race at the European Championships (Slovenia) on 3 October, alone, with a 5″ lead, in 3h10’33”. Puck Pieterse (Netherlands) was second, Marlen Reusser (Switzerland) third.
The race
The riders set off over 130 kilometres, finishing in Šenčur, Slovenia. The first two thirds are almost flat. Then comes the finishing circuit, with the Možjanca climb to be tackled twice: 2.1 km at an average of 10.4%.
The breakaway formed less than 10 km from the start. Austria’s Carina Schrempf and Belgium’s Margot Vanpachtenbeke went clear. They stayed in front until 39 km from the finish, with the Dutch riders driving the peloton.
The race came alive on the first Možjanca, 35 km from the line. Reusser attacked and took Vollering, Pieterse, Elisa Longo Borghini, Antonia Niedermaier, Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney and Juliette Berthet with her. On the descent the group came back together.
More attempts followed. At 28 km from the finish Franziska Koch and Cecilie Ludwig went away, with 25” in hand: they were caught at 19 km. Straight after, Liane Lippert, Noemi Rüegg and Femke De Vries took 20” and were reabsorbed at 16 km.
The decisive moment came on the second climb of Možjanca, just under 15 km from the line. Vollering stretched out, dropped Niewiadoma-Phinney and Pieterse and went on alone. With 12.2 km to go her lead was 34”.
Behind, many riders set about the chase. Niewiadoma-Phinney did the pulling with Pieterse on her wheel. Longo Borghini and Niedermaier came together, then Reusser too. The small group could not catch the leader. Vollering crossed the line 5” ahead of Pieterse, who gave the Netherlands a one-two.
Reusser came in third, 6” back. Longo Borghini finished fourth on the same time, a step away from the podium. Niedermaier was fifth, 15” down. Niewiadoma-Phinney was still up there, but crashed on the last bend, a few hundred metres from the finish. She finished sixth, 45” back.
Vollering, 30, was defending the title she won in 2025. Seven days earlier she had won the world championships in Montréal, and in Šenčur she raced for the first time as world champion. According to the reports we have read, she is the first elite rider to win two European titles in a row, and the first woman to win the world and European titles together.
The first of the Italians is Elisa Longo Borghini, 4th at 6″. 75 riders finished out of 86 starters.
How they finished
The top ten
| # | Rider | Country | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Demi Vollering | Netherlands | 3h10’33” |
| 2 | Puck Pieterse | Netherlands | +5″ |
| 3 | Marlen Reusser | Switzerland | +6″ |
| 4 | Elisa Longo Borghini | Italy | +6″ |
| 5 | Antonia Niedermaier | Germany | +15″ |
| 6 | Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney | Poland | +45″ |
| 7 | Juliette Berthet | France | +59″ |
| 8 | Franziska Koch | Germany | +1’55” |
| 9 | Usoa Ostolaza | Spain | +1’55” |
| 10 | Femke De Vries | Netherlands | +1’56” |
The race in numbers
- Selection index
- 90 out of 100 Of 75 finishers: 5 within 30 seconds of the winner, 15 within 2 minutes, 63 within 10 minutes (her included). It runs from 0, a bunch sprint, to 98, a solo finish.
News written with the help of Mnemosyne.
Sources
- Results and times: UCI, official results.
- Photo: Cs-wolves, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
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