Vollering Solos 35km From The Redoute To Win A Record Third Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes — Pieterse Second At 1'28", Niewiadoma Third
Demi Vollering won her third Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes on Sunday afternoon with a textbook solo attack on the Côte de la Redoute that nobody could follow, riding the final 35 kilometres alone into Liège to take a 1'28" victory and become the first woman ever to win La Doyenne three times. The result completes the rarest of women's spring trebles — Amstel Gold Race, Flèche Wallonne, Liège-Bastogne-Liège — a feat previously achieved only by Anna van der Breggen across the 2017 and 2018 seasons.
The race exploded on the Redoute at the 35-kilometre mark when Vollering jumped from a thinning lead group of fourteen and immediately opened thirty seconds. The chase — including defending champion Puck Pieterse, three-time runner-up Kasia Niewiadoma, and the surprise of the spring Pauline Ferrand-Prévot on her first Liège in eight years — could not organise itself behind the FDJ-Suez leader. By the Côte des Forges with 23km to go the gap was over a minute. By the foot of the final Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons it was beyond two.
Pieterse won the chase-group sprint for second at 1'28", her second consecutive Liège podium after winning in 2025 — a remarkable result given that the 23-year-old Fenix-Premier Tech leader was racing for the first time since the Tour of Flanders. Niewiadoma-Phinney took third for Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto, with Anna van der Breggen a stirring fourth in what is her final Liège start before retiring at the end of the season. Ferrand-Prévot, on her Visma-Lease a Bike Monument debut, came home fifth — a result that her team rated as "exactly on the projection" for an athlete still rebuilding road-racing form after a winter mostly spent on the mountain bike.
The triple-crown achievement places Vollering on a pedestal occupied by only one rider in the modern women's WorldTour era. Van der Breggen completed the Ardennes triple in 2017 and again in 2018, both on the same Boels-Dolmans squad. Marianne Vos held two of the three in 2013 (Amstel, Flèche) but never the Liège trifecta in a single year. Vollering's run is the first of the post-2020 era and arrives at the end of a dominant April: solo wins at Amstel and Liège, plus a long-range Flèche attack from 700 metres on the Mur de Huy.
"This is the only Ardennes Monument I had won twice and not three times before today," Vollering said on the podium, holding her third La Doyenne trophy alongside the first two. "The Redoute was the plan from the bus this morning. The team rode unbelievably to keep me sheltered and the legs were there. I told Elise [Chabbey] on the Stockeu, 'today we are not waiting for anybody.' The triple — that comes after." The 29-year-old now extends her lead at the top of the UCI Women's WorldTour individual rankings to over 1,200 points and confirms her status as the favourite for the Tour de France Femmes 2026 GC, currently 4/6 on the spring board.
Behind the headline, the day held quieter stories. Van der Breggen's fourth place was the best result of her short comeback campaign and earned a roar at the line that lasted longer than Vollering's solo arrival. Lotte Kopecky, dropped on the second Stockeu after struggling all spring with a back injury, finished 19th and confirmed she will skip the Vuelta Femenina to refocus on the Giro Donne. Marlen Reusser, riding her first Liège for Movistar, came eighth and admitted that "I have not been on the climbs enough this winter — that is the next training block".
For Vollering, the spring closes with an Ardennes triple, twelve UCI wins for the calendar year, and a one-month gap before her next race at the Tour de Suisse Women on 4 June. The 2026 spring belongs to her without contest. The post-Liège question — already in the press centre on Sunday evening — is whether anyone in the women's peloton can stop her from winning the Tour de France Femmes title that has eluded her since 2023.