Demi Vollering (FDJ United-SUEZ) produced one of the rides of the 2026 Spring Classics on Sunday, attacking over the Côte de La Redoute with 35 kilometres remaining and soloing all the way to the finish in Liège for a record third Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes title. Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Premier Tech) won the chase-group sprint for second, with Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto) third and four-time winner Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx-Protime) fourth.
Vollering’s victory makes her the most successful female rider in the history of La Doyenne, surpassing van der Breggen’s tally on the women’s start list, and caps a flawless Ardennes campaign for the Dutch rider after second at Amstel Gold and a measured ride at Flèche Wallonne earlier in the week.
What Happened on the Way to Liège
The 156-kilometre route from Bastogne to Liège used the second half of the men’s parcours, including the Côte de Wanne, the Stockeu, La Redoute and the Roche-aux-Faucons. With 50 kilometres to go a small group of contenders had broken clear, and FDJ United-SUEZ – fielding what was arguably the deepest team in the women’s peloton – started to control the front.
The race exploded on La Redoute. Évita Muzic and Juliette Berthet delivered Vollering into the bottom of the climb perfectly, before Elise Chabbey lifted the pace in a textbook lead-out. Vollering kicked clear before the summit and never saw her rivals again.
A 35km Solo That Was Never in Doubt
By the top of La Redoute Vollering already had double-digit seconds in hand. She extended her lead steadily through the rolling kilometres before the Roche-aux-Faucons, and by the time she crested the final climb, the gap was over a minute. She crossed the line in Liège alone, glancing at her stopwatch before raising both arms.
Behind, the chase fragmented as several riders – Niewiadoma-Phinney, Pieterse, van der Breggen, Cédrine Kerbaol and Marlen Reusser among them – tried to coordinate. None could close. In the sprint for second, Pieterse used her cyclo-cross instincts to dispatch Niewiadoma-Phinney by half a wheel, with van der Breggen fourth at her last La Doyenne.
What This Means For Vollering’s Season
Vollering’s 2026 spring now reads three Monument-status results in a row: she won Tour of Flanders in early April, finished second at Amstel Gold, and now adds a third Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes. Her form going into the Giro d’Italia Donne and the Tour de France Femmes is the strongest it has been since her 2023 grand-slam season.
For FDJ United-SUEZ, the win is also a vindication of an aggressive winter rebuild. The squad’s strength on the road – Muzic, Berthet, Chabbey – is what made the La Redoute move possible in the first place. With prize-money parity now in place across the Women’s WorldTour, the team’s back-to-back Monument wins land in a season where every result counts double for visibility and budget.
Three Things Amateur Riders Can Steal From the Move
Vollering’s win was a masterclass in race-craft as much as raw watts. A few lessons that translate to weekend gran fondos and club races:
- Pick the climb, not the kilometre. La Redoute peaks at over 20% – an ideal place to attack because drafting savings disappear at that gradient. Save your match for terrain that suits your strengths.
- Use teammates to set up the move, not just chase. Chabbey’s lead-out into the climb was as decisive as the attack itself. In group rides, knowing who can soft-pedal up to the bottom of a hill matters more than who can jump from it.
- Commit, don’t measure. Vollering didn’t look back until 1km from the line. Once you’re clear, the worst thing you can do is dip the pace to check the gap – it lets the chase regroup.
Where the Ardennes Result Leaves the Women’s WorldTour
With Reusser, Vollering, Pieterse and Niewiadoma-Phinney all in form and Lotte Kopecky still building toward her summer goals, the women’s peloton heads into the May calendar with arguably the deepest contender pool in its history. Pieterse, in particular, is now a serious threat on hilly courses after a winter of road-specific work; her runner-up ride confirms she can hold her own against the best on La Redoute.
The men’s race later in the day was won by Tadej Pogačar in a similarly emphatic style, giving UAE-FDJ a clean sweep of the day and underlining the dominance of the new generation across both pelotons. Together with Vollering’s earlier solo at the Tour of Flanders, this Ardennes campaign is the most successful since the women’s calendar moved fully to Monument-equivalent races.
Key Takeaways
- Demi Vollering wins her record third Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes with a 35km solo.
- Puck Pieterse takes second from a chase-group sprint, with Niewiadoma-Phinney third.
- The decisive move came on the Côte de La Redoute, set up by FDJ United-SUEZ teammates.
- Vollering’s Ardennes 2026 campaign is now Flanders + Liège in three weeks.
- Anna van der Breggen, fourth, said it was likely her last La Doyenne start.
Source: race reports from Cyclingnews, ProCyclingUK and the official Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes press service.
