‘I thought I was 20th!’ - Vollering surprised by time trial bronze after tough battle

"I really don't know, because when I finished I really had the thought 'ok now I'm 20th or something' because my feeling was not good today, and yeah, when I read I was third, I was like 'there's no way I'm third with this performance,'" Vollering said, speaking to Eurosport after the finish.

Vollering was the last rider off the start ramp out of the vibrant BK Arena, serenaded by passionate fans, and was buoyed in the early stages, able to match the early pace of Marlen Reusser at the first intermediate checkpoint. 

However, Vollering was unable to maintain the power required to challenge Reusser for the rainbow jersey and ultimately finished 3rd, with fellow Dutch rider Anna van der Breggen in 2nd, after valiantly battling to the finish line on an arduous course.

"It was really hard today, and I didn't want to give in. I really kept fighting until the end, but yeah, it was one big fight today. It didn't feel nice at all today," she explained.

When asked where she struggled most on the 31.2km route featuring 460m of elevation gain, Vollering’s answer was straightforward and gave an indication of the difficulty of the course.

"Everywhere, really like, on the first climb already I felt like 'okay try not to think but this is not my best performance' so I tried to breathe through it and keep pushing metre by metre, but yeah it was a hard one."

The challenging altitude and heat of Rwanda were touted to be a challenging factor ahead of the championships, and when Vollering was asked if this was a factor for her bad feeling, the Dutch rider felt that her preparations had been thorough.

"From my feeling, I did everything, I did an altitude camp before, I did efforts at altitude, although the air quality is different here of course, but I did heat training, I did saunas, so from my feeling I didn't struggle too much with the heat, but of course my heart rate was really high today," she said.

Vollering also believes that her experience on the day wasn’t unique, "I think everybody struggled a little bit today, because if I'm third today with this performance, with these legs, then I mean I can see that everybody struggled with these conditions," she added.

Adding a bronze medal to the silver she picked up in Zurich 12 months ago, Vollering was also asked if she has the feeling that the rainbow jersey could be achievable in the coming years in the time trial discipline.

“I will keep working very hard to be in the highest podium spot, of course, one day, but this year it was not possible.”

Vollering’s attention will now turn to the road race on 27 September, where once more, the 28-year-old will be one of the pre-race favourites to win the coveted rainbow jersey.