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The Dutch star claimed her fifth victory of the season (out of 8 days of racing), including a historic Ardennes treble from the Amstel Gold Race, last Sunday, to Liège, with La Flèche Wallonne Femmes in between.
Already a winner of Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes in 2021, Vollering sprinted to the win from a late escape with Longo Borghini and emulated Anna van der Breggen, who achieved the same ‘Ardennes triple’ in 2017. Third on the podium, Marlen Reusser ( Team SD Worx) underlined the Dutch team’s dominance this spring, sprinting from the chasing bunch after a strong performance from the breakaway.
“It’s amazing, I can not believe it,”said Vollering. “ I was really happy that Elisa wanted to work with me, then in the last kilometre I really need to gamble. I knew I had Marlen (Reusser) behind me of course, so that made it a bit easier for me.
“I really wanted to win this one for the chance to win three in a row, not a chance you have every day. I really wanted to take this home.”
A break powered clear at the head of the race on the Côte de Stockeu, cresting the climb with a small gap with 80 kilometres remaining to the finish.
It was a good mix of teams and strong riders, with Australian Amanda Spratt (Trek-Segafredo), Anna Henderson (Jumbo-Visma), Marlen Reusser (SD Worx), Esmee Peperkamp (Team DSM) and Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) forming the move.
The escapees built a good advantage which stretched to a maximum of a minute, until Niewiadoma suffered a puncture and slipped out the front group, returning to the peloton with 47 kilometres to go.
The run in to the Cote de la Redoute saw teams drive into the base of the climb to position their leaders in the best possible position for the often decisive climb. However, it was the front of the race that saw the fireworks, with Reusser putting down the power and dropping all the other riders in the break, with Spratt the last to be shed.
She put in some time on the chasing peloton despite some attacks from the main bunch that slimmed down the group. Spratt chased solo after the climb before being caught by the remnants of the peloton after the Cote des Forges with 21 kilometres to race.
That left Reusser with a minute lead on the rest of the riders in contention for the win, time-trialling her way to the finish line in Liege.
That was when the attacks started from behind, with some serious surges of pace seeing Reusser brought back to within catching distance on the final major climb of the Cote de la Rouche aux Fachons.
The elite riders formed up at the front as Reusser was caught, with Longo Borghini going on the attack with Reusser chasing along. The rest of the group chased, with Vollering waiting for her moment to launch a big attack over to the leading pair, continuing her attack and taking Longo Borghini with her clear at the front.
The chase behind was hamstrung with the presence of Reusser and Gaia Realini (Trek-Segafredo) marking the move for their team leaders up the road. That and the strength of Vollering and Longo Borghini ensured it would be a two-up sprint between the two stars of cycling.
They left the sprint very late, slowing to save themselves for the final dash for the line, launching with 150 metres to go, with Vollering quickly showing herself to be the fastest and winning comfortably in the end.
She reached to the sky with three fingers aloft, a salute to her wrapping up her Ardennes triple of Liege-Bastogne-Liege, Fleche Wallonne and Amstel Gold in the same calendar year.
