Demi Vollering stands atop the cycling world after winning the 2026 UCI Road World Championships in Montreal. But long before she was climbing the cols of the Tour de France, she was growing up among the hydrangeas in her family’s greenhouse in Pijnacker, Netherlands. The story of how a florist’s daughter became one of the greatest cyclists of her generation begins with two people: her father, Kees, and her mother, Germa.
Who Are Kees and Germa Vollering?
Kees and Germa Vollering are Demi’s parents, and they’ve been her most steadfast supporters from the very beginning. The family lives in Berkel en Rodenrijs, a town in the Netherlands, where Kees runs a flower-growing business specializing in hydrangeas.
Germa has been the emotional anchor of the family, often speaking to the press about Demi’s childhood dreams and her unwavering focus. Kees, meanwhile, is the one who provided the family’s livelihood through the greenhouse business and instilled in his children a fierce work ethic.
The Flower Farm That Shaped a Champion
Demi grew up as the eldest of four children in a greenhouse-growing family. Her father Kees owns a nursery that grows cut hydrangeas, which he has described as “the most beautiful in the Netherlands” on the company website. The family business wasn’t just a backdrop to Demi’s childhood. It was a formative experience that taught her discipline and ambition.
Demi herself has spoken about working in the greenhouses during her youth. “Around this time, on days like these, I would have been working incredibly hard in the greenhouses, surrounded by flowers,” she wrote in a social media post. “It was there that I knew I had more to offer the world. It was there that I promised myself I wanted to give everything I had to sport.”
She even trained as a florist and worked in a flower shop before committing fully to cycling.
A Family That Wasn’t a Cycling Family
One of the most remarkable things about Demi Vollering’s rise is that her family had no background in competitive cycling. As her mother Germa told Dutch media, “We’re not a cycling family at all. We do bike, but on normal bikes.”
The cycling passion came from extended family. Germa has noted that her sister’s children were competitive cyclists, and she believes that’s where Demi’s interest was sparked. It started with “fat tire races” on normal school bikes, and from there, Demi never looked back.
The Parents Who Believed in the Dream
Germa has often shared stories of Demi’s childhood ambitions. In friends’ books, when asked what she wanted to be when she grew up, Demi’s answer was always the same: “wielrenster,” a cyclist.
Kees and Germa weren’t just observers of their daughter’s journey. They followed her everywhere, from local races to the Tour de France Femmes. In 2023, when Demi won her first Tour de France, her parents and sister Nena celebrated from a campsite in France, proudly watching their daughter make history.
In 2026, as Demi claimed her second Tour victory, Kees and Germa made the trip to Etten-Leur to watch her being honored, beaming with pride.
The Siblings
Demi is the eldest of four siblings. Her younger sister Bodine Vollering has also pursued competitive cycling, making her professional debut with VolkerWessels Cycling Team in 2025. The two sisters even raced together at Strade Bianche in 2025, a moment Demi described as deeply emotional.
Her other sister, Nena Vollering, was with her parents at the Tour de France celebrations in 2023, part of the tight-knit family unit that has supported Demi throughout her career.
The Bottom Line
Demi Vollering’s parents, Kees and Germa, raised their daughter in a world of greenhouses and hydrangeas, not velodromes and mountain passes. Yet they gave her the tools that mattered most: a strong work ethic, the freedom to chase her dreams, and unwavering belief. As Vollering stands atop the cycling world, she does so because two flower growers from Pijnacker saw something in their daughter and never stopped supporting her.
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