The annual pre-season FDJ-Suez press conference runs like a well-oiled machine. Demi Vollering, Évita Muzic, Vittoria Guazzini and Juliette Labous sit alongside the French team’s manager, Stephen Delcourt, all dressed in pristine matching Nike tracksuits. They pop-up on a Zoom call attended by over 30 international journalists, speaking from the FDJ headquarters in Paris on a panel conducted by a seasoned host. This is what the best women’s WorldTour teams look like in 2025: serious, professional, impressive sporting organisations cutting no corners on their way to victory.
This scene is representative of how far women's cycling has come in recent years, and FDJ-Suez has long been at the vanguard of this change. For the last five seasons, the Poitiers-based team has been steadily attracting more and more established riders – alongside developing homegrown talent – upholding exemplary standards when it comes to working conditions and staying at the forefront of changes in the sport. Delcourt himself has been vocal about FDJ-Suez’s aim for some time now: they want to take victory on the biggest stage, in their home race at the Tour de France Femmes. They are leaving no stone unturned on their way there.
A big part of making this dream a reality is, of course, finding the rider who has the potential to take yellow. It’s why for 2025 they worked hard to get the budget and sponsors that have made it possible to bring 2023 Tour winner Vollering into the FDJ-Suez roster. With the signing of the Dutchwoman came new equipment partners in Specialized and Nike, alongside a reportedly large salary and plenty of media attention. After her turbulent season with SD Worx-Protime in 2024, Vollering’s time on the transfer market was well-documented, with rumours and gossip swirling about her potential destination. FDJ-Suez, after plenty of grafting, won her signature – but now the real work starts. Can Vollering find a home at the French team? Will she be able to give them the Tour win they desire? Or could problems arise again for the 28-year-old?
Vollering at the end of the 2024 Tour de France Femmes (Image: Tornanti)
One of the key issues Vollering faced while part of SD Worx, for example, was surrounding leadership decisions, notably when the team had both her and Lotte Kopecky targeting the same races. We all remember that famous 2023 Strade Bianche Donne finish when the pair sprinted it out against each other furiously into the Piazza del Campo, despite many expecting the sports directors to make a call on which rider would be allowed to take the win. The same thing happened at the Tour de Romandie Féminin at the end of last year when Vollering and Kopecky went head-to-head on the Queen stage to Vercorin. Generally, team cohesion and bonding were a continual issue for Vollering at SD Worx (another high-profile example being when she crashed on stage four of last year’s Tour and her teammates failed to wait and pace her back to the peloton).
While she certainly has been brought to FDJ-Suez as a leader, the team’s press conference was already indicative of the fact that Vollering isn’t the only rider on the team with GC ambitions at the Tour. Muzic and Labous are both established climbers who have been in the top-10 at the race before, and FDJ will still need to navigate tricky decisions regarding rider hierarchy at important races. Team manager Delcourt was quick to dispel any ideas that this could cause friction in the FDJ-Suez ranks, however.
“In FDJ-Suez it’s about the personality and the human part. When we signed Juliette, Demi and Evita we spoke about how they complete each other's skills,” he said. “At every face-to-face meeting we were able to see that they could collaborate. With the culture and sports director we have spoken a lot about this, they accept the deal, they have to work together and I'm really confident. We want to win all the big races with different riders.”
Vollering at the FDJ-Suez pre-season training camp (Image: FDJ Suez)
Vollering herself appeared relaxed and happy within her new surroundings. She shared an anecdote about struggling to get comfortable on her bike during training camp, for example, and the lengths that the team went to so she could try out new saddles and handlebars to ensure she was comfortable. This meticulous attention to detail, according to the Dutch rider, is what she needs to help her succeed in 2025.
“Small details are so important for riders to adjust to new positions and be at the top of their game, those details say a lot about this team,” Vollering stated. “This winter was way more relaxed, way more calm. Last winter, I had so many decisions I needed to make, so much stress I had in that period. I already feel very much at home in the team. It was of course really scary with so many new people around me, but the first camps made it easy because I felt fast in my place. Everybody was really nice and it’s just a very relaxed atmosphere, nothing to prove.”
She pointed out that she’s working with a new coach now she is part of FDJ-Suez (understandably considering her former trainer, Anna van der Breggen, is returning to the peloton as an SD Worx rider this season) and explained that the fresh approach has been paying dividends in her feeling on the bike so far. A stress-free winter to prepare with full focus on the season ahead has made Vollering “much more ready than what I felt last year”.
As much as she was keen to paint a picture of serenity ahead of starting her season – which she will do at Setmana Ciclista Valenciana in just a few days time – there was no avoiding probing questions about how it will feel to race against her former teammates in SD Worx. The friction within the team last year was no secret, laid bare at the Tour de France Femmes last summer especially.
"It doesn't feel, for me, like I want to take revenge on the team or something because I left there with good feelings. It's not that I want to take revenge on them. Of course, we want to win from them, but that's another thing,” Vollering retorted. “I don’t see it as a battle between the two teams. I think it’s a battle between the whole peloton,” she said. “I think a lot of teams are stepping up with strong riders, so it’s a very nice spread this coming season. I think we will have competitors in all kinds of teams in the peloton at the moment.”
Manager Delcourt sang a similar tune to his new signing: “All the public want a big fight,” he commented, “ss Demi says, it’s not a fight between SD Worx and us, because if we think about that, for sure the two teams will lose a lot. Everyone says, ‘FDJ-Suez is a smart team. They’re a French team. They’re not a killer team’. But we don’t want to kill the others, we just want to win and create something together.”
High standards of professionalism, big ambition and unity; it seems like Vollering could have all she needs at FDJ-Suez to make this the season she dreams of. However, this doesn’t come without pressure. All eyes are on the Dutch rider to perform this year, and the stakes at the Tour de France are sky-high for her new team. There are other talented climbers in FDJ-Suez’s roster ready to take up the challenge if Vollering isn’t as successful as she and her team hope, and given her past at SD Worx-Protime, it’s going to be important for FDJ to maintain the unity they say they have found over the winter as the races really begin. As talented as Vollering is, she cannot win the Tour de France Femmes alone.
