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Vuelta Femenina

FDJ-Suez Confirm The Vuelta Femenina 2026 Roster — Vollering's Title Defence Backed By Chabbey-Berthet-Labous-Cavalli-Adegeest-Koppenburg-Muzic, The Stage 7 Angliru Sheet Locks Around The Cueña Les Cabres Ramps

CYCLING LOOKOUT • 29 APRIL 2026

Wednesday morning Lyon. FDJ-Suez have confirmed the seven-rider line-up that defending champion Demi Vollering will take to Sunday's Vuelta Femenina in Galicia, with Elise Chabbey, Juliette Labous, Marta Cavalli, Loes Adegeest, Franziska Koppenburg, and Évita Muzic completing the sheet alongside the Dutchwoman who has dominated the women's calendar since the cobbled Classics. Performance director Stephen Delcourt told the lunchtime media call in Lyon that the roster has been "reverse-engineered" from the 12.4km Alto de l'Angliru summit on Sunday 9 May — the women's debut on the 9.7 per cent climb that closes the race.

The headline number is Vollering's 4/9 outright price, hardened from 1/2 on Sunday evening after she took her record third Liège-Bastogne-Liège title with the 1'28" solo that has reset the spring narrative. It is the shortest pre-Vuelta Femenina favourite price ever set and reflects a five-from-six tally across the spring — Strade Bianche, Brabantse Pijl, Amstel Gold, Flèche Wallonne and Liège — that has FDJ-Suez management privately rating her ceiling above her 2025 title-winning level.

The mountain support is where the line-up earns its shape. Chabbey, the 32-year-old Swiss who took fifth on the Angliru at the men's 2023 Vuelta a España when riding for Canyon-SRAM as a stand-in domestique, is the lead Cueña les Cabres pacesetter — Delcourt has signed off the brief that has Chabbey, Berthet (Cécile Uttrup Ludwig's replacement after the Tour of Flanders crash) and Muzic taking the climb's three 23.5 per cent ramps in turn. Labous is the GC second card, expected to ride into the top eight overall and a potential beneficiary if the race opens up around Vollering on Stage 6's Les Praeres summit.

The flat-stage cover is built around Adegeest and Koppenburg. The Dutchwoman comes in off her Tour of Flanders Women top-ten and a Brabantse Pijl podium last week behind Lorena Wiebes, with the early-stage sprint shepherding role designed to keep Lotte Kopecky and the SD Worx-Protime engine off the front through the rolling Stages 2 and 3. Koppenburg, signed from Lidl-Trek over the winter, brings the cobbled Classics engine that Delcourt has flagged as "exactly the kind of rider we missed for the Stage 1 finish in 2025."

The Stage 1 schedule has shifted the team's approach. The 113.9km Marín-Salvaterra de Miño opener replaces the team time trial that has launched the race for the previous three editions — the first regular road-stage opener since 2023 — and FDJ-Suez had to redraw their line-up after the route announcement in November. "We had a TT-led sheet in October," Delcourt said, "and we have rebuilt it twice since the route changed." Cavalli is the clearest beneficiary, swapping a TTT-driven role for a stage-hunting brief that targets the rolling Stage 5 finish in León.

For Vollering, the Vuelta is the second leg of a Grand Tour double that locks her calendar through to August. She is the bookmakers' 9/4 favourite for the Tour de France Femmes a fortnight ago and remains 5/2 today after Liège, with FDJ-Suez confirming that the Tour de Suisse Women in June and the Giro d'Italia Donne in July are out — the team's clearest signal yet that the Spanish-French double is the explicit objective. "Demi has built the spring around peaking for the Angliru and not before," Delcourt told L'Équipe. "We have not held anything back, but we have also not asked her to ride for results that would compromise the GC."

The team will travel to Pontevedra on Saturday morning for the start-village reconnaissance and a final 90-minute briefing at the team hotel on Saturday evening. Vollering, who returned to training Tuesday after a three-day post-Liège recovery block, has logged a 480km week that includes a Pyrenean weekend in Andorra with team-mate Cavalli — the longest training block she has done between a Monument and a Grand Tour in her career.

The bookmakers' market reads as a two-up race. Vollering 4/9, Ferrand-Prévot 7/2, Reusser 9/2, Van der Breggen 6/1, Labous 12/1, Niewiadoma 14/1 — the field beyond the FDJ-Visma duel is the longest-priced any women's Grand Tour has been in three seasons. The opening test is the Galicia kicker on Sunday afternoon at 16:30 CEST. The final answer comes on the Angliru on Saturday 9 May.

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