SD Worx: There’s no room for Demi Vollering and Lotte Kopecky on same team
While one leader renews contract, other set to leave
Demi Vollering will be on a new team in 2024, according to a report from GCN. Her teammate (for now), Lotte Kopecky extended her contract.
In February, world champion Lotte Kopecky renewed her deal with Team SD Worx – Protime, opting to extend it until 2028. Negotiations between the team and the talented rider concluded swiftly, indicating mutual satisfaction with the terms.
Kopecky and Vollering’s dominance
Kopecky’s tenure with Team SD Worx – Protime over the past two seasons has been marked by remarkable achievements, including securing the world road title in Glasgow, triumphing twice in the Ronde van Vlaanderen, conquering Strade Bianche, clinching the points classification and a stage victory in the Tour de France Femmes, and garnering multiple world and European titles on the track.
As far as Vollering , she will be headed elsewhere. “We can’t have two riders from that level in our team,” Danny Stam, the SD Worx-Protime boss said to GCN.
Who will land the defending Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift champion is unclear, but she will definitely be a rider that the big teams will want. Although Visma – Lease a Bike has extended Marianne Vos’s contract through 2025, the team would definitely benefit from having a rider like Vollering.
“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 said. “It’s about the budget. 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.”
A statement from the team on X on Wednesday stated that there had been an offer made to her, but there had not been a response. “We made Demi Vollering a generous offer and indicated that this should be responded to before a certain date. Vollering’s management did not respond to this. Therefore, we assume that Vollering will leave the team at the end of the year. The report in the media that we recently sat down with Demi or her management is not true.”
Statement team manager Erwin Janssen of Team SD Worx – Protime on Demi Vollering:
“We made Demi Vollering a generous offer and indicated that this should be responded to before a certain date. Vollering’s management did not respond to this. Therefore, we assume that Vollering…
— Team SD Worx – Protime (@teamsdworx) March 27, 2024
Where will Vollering go?
Stam mentioned that he couldn’t disclose the potential destination for Vollering, but he did affirm that he and his rider had met in recent weeks to finalize their separation agreement.
Dutch rider Vollering won the 2023 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, finishing the eight-stage race ahead of Kopecky and Poland’s Katarzyna Niewiadoma of the Canyon-SRAM team. She also dominated the spring classics with a hat-trick in the Belgian Ardennes, winning Fleche Wallonne, Liège–Bastogne–Liège and the Amstel Gold race. She also finished second overall at the world road championships, and third at the world gravel championships. Vollering won the Dutch national championships in the road race, additionally.
