Demi Vollering will leave SD Worx-Protime, team boss confirms

SD Worx-Protime boss Danny Stam has confirmed to GCN that star rider Demi Vollering will leave at the end of the season.

The reigning Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift champion is out of contract at the end of the current campaign and will have a host of teams chasing her signature.

The news follows the announcement in February that world champion Lotte Kopecky had extended with the team for the next four years.

"Everyone knows that Lotte has signed until 2028 and we’ve tried hard to keep the team but for Demi, I don’t think that it’s an option for us," Stam told GCN.

When asked if Vollering would leave, Stam responded: “Yes, that’s definitely sure.

"It’s about budget," he added. "You need to make a choice, and at one moment things can go away but I think it’s clear that we can’t have two riders from that level in our team."

Stam stated that he was not in a position to share the possible landing spot for Vollering. When asked if he had sat down with Vollering to confirm her departure at the end of the season, Stam replied: "Kinda yeah, yeah."

Vollering, 27, joined the Dutch team at the start of 2021 and quickly established herself as a major star, winning Liège-Bastogne-Liège, La Course by Le Tour de France and the Women’s Tour GC in her first season on the squad.

The following year she finished second in the Tour de France before making another huge step in 2023, with wins in the Tour de France, Strade Bianche, and the Ardennes triple: Amstel Gold Race, La Flèche Wallonne and a second title in Liège-Bastogne-Liège. However, with Kopecky’s striking development into an all-round team leader, the debate over leadership, and the budget required to keep two world-class leaders ranked one and two in the world, it became clear that something would have to give.

"I think that we managed to get the most out of everyone. And in sports roads split up," Stam said. "We know that you can’t always keep the same riders until the end of their careers."