Demi Vollering once again demonstrates that she is a champion with remarkable sensitivity. As hungry in the race as she is attentive to others, both on and off the bike.

A few months after we told you how the FDJ Suez rider had saved a goat, today we must report her words about colleague Wout van Aert, who yesterday lost the Dwars door Vlaanderen to Neilson Powless, despite having two teammates by his side in the final of the race that gave us a taste of the spectacle we can expect next weekend at the Tour of Flanders.

The Strade Bianche winner titled her Instagram post The Deception... 💭, which we present in full:

Yep, I was also laughing a bit when I first heard and then saw that Visma lost while being in the break with three…
But after watching it back once more and hearing Wout’s interview, I changed my mind.

We should not forget that we are all human. We love a bit of drama. We love underdog stories.
Wout is human as well. This guy has been through a lot! And everyone has had their opinion about him.
We all judge too early, especially too easily. We are tempted to forget everything he has been through, and we probably don’t even know half of it because we cannot look inside his head or understand what it does to him mentally.

Hearing him say that he was egoistic and that it is not who he is was painful for me, because we forget so easily what stress, doubt, and all the mess thrown at him actually do to him.

For me, it is completely understandable that he lost himself a bit.
When people have so much to say about you, it is easy to start feeling lost. And it is probably something you do not even notice. It creeps in very quietly.

You train a bit harder, focus a bit more, and before you know it, you are lost in your rituals, running on autopilot, trying to prove everyone wrong, trying to get just a bit closer to your dreams.

And before you know it, you make the wrong decisions and you cramp up. Maybe it was not the body. Maybe it was the mind that got too excited. But you did not stay true to yourself, so this win was not meant to be.

It is a lesson. A wake up call for Visma and Wout, but not just for them. It is a lesson and a wake up call for all of us.

He is human. We are all human. I think I have been in his situation. You think you are making the right decisions, but under too much pressure, under too much focus, you cannot see it anymore.

And we will never realize it in that very moment…

Demi Vollering