The Dutch team failed to put together its total effort in the elite women's road race at the UCI Road World Championships. Dressed in orange uniforms, the girls looked like they had the win in the final lap, but somehow squandered it and the title was once again taken away from them by Lotte Kopecky (Belgium).

Pre-race favorite Demi Vollering was the Dutchman's best finisher in fifth place, but her strategy was sometimes hard to understand. The 27-year-old is arguably the most outstanding talent in the peloton, but after a disjointed run in the Netherlands, the rainbow jersey continues to elude her.

“It's a little difficult to analyze right now. It's so cold and I don't know what to think or feel right now,” said Voerling, her teeth chattering from the cold as she arrived in the mixed zone. One thing is for sure: we fought all day. In the end, the finale wasn't hard enough to really get away with it."

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The tough course combined with miserable conditions made Saturday afternoon a battle of attrition. Vollering showed her strength on the climb of Viticon with 46km to go, pushing teammates Marianne Vos, Misha Bredewald, and Liegenne Marx to the back of the pack.

By the time the bell rang, however, the Dutch team was still encountering ideal conditions. Vos and Marx, along with Justine Gekier (Belgium) and Ruby Roseman-Gannon (Australia), were leading a group of four women and had a one-minute lead over Volering, Kopecký, and other leading riders.

At this point, riders like Elisa Longo Borghini (ITA) and Chloe Dygert (USA) were certainly responsible for leading the chase, but instead Vollering was seen occasionally upping the tempo on the final climb up Witcon.

Meanwhile, Vollering forced more on the run-in, and the team's fastest rider, Voss, was forced out from behind. Longo Borghini then attacked on the final climb, but Vollaring held on for the win.

“You can always say, 'If only I had done this, if only I had done that. But it's always difficult to say that. 'Maybe I should have started my attack earlier,' he said. Of course, you have to put your arrow in the quiver somewhere, and maybe it was too late. But it's always easy to say something after the race.”

When Markus entered the mixed zone, she explained that Holland had painted a dreamy scenario at the beginning of the last lap.

“I think it was a very good situation with me and Marianne in the breakaway group and of course Demi behind us,” said a shaken Marx.

“I just tried to get over the climb to get into the final group with the three riders, but I think I came up just a little bit short. It's a shame because if there had been three riders in the final it would have been a different game. Demi was the only one and it was a little too hard.”

Marcus dismissed the notion that Volering's acceleration from behind her teammate on the last lap was a mistake. She said, “It was her plan to attack on the climb. For her, the race needs to be as hard as possible. But the ideal situation would have been for us to succeed as well.

Vos, meanwhile, admitted that she began to feel dizzy in the final 50 km of the race, despite being at the front. 'The candle was slowly going out,' he said. Like Vollering and Marx, she was reluctant to assign too much responsibility to the team's tactical approach immediately after the race.

“We knew we were going to fall apart quickly on the last lap,” she said. It was about racing tough and hard to get Demi in a good position.”

However, Vollering seemed to suggest that having a teammate in front of him limited his freedom to go on the offensive on the final lap of the World Championship.

“Having Marianne and Lieyanne in front of me on the last climb was a disadvantage for me. 'My group wasn't fast enough and no one was attacking. That was a disadvantage for me. I couldn't do much.”

Voerling could only manage fifth place in the six-man sprint for the rainbow jersey, with Vos and Markus finishing a minute behind. 13th-place finisher Puck Peters took the under-23 world title.

“I don't know what everyone is talking about because I had to go directly to the podium,” Pieterse replied after the race when asked about the mood among his more experienced teammates.

Meanwhile, silver medalist Dygert was more critical of the Dutch camp from the outside, even though he found a neat diplomatic way to describe their tactics.

“I think sometimes the Dutch do very well and sometimes they don't. 'I think their biggest strength is also their biggest weakness. Everyone on the team wants to win, and I think that's sometimes the reason why everyone loses.”

Kopecký could only smile when asked about the Dutch strategy at the press conference. He said, “I really wonder now how it would have looked from the TV.

The Belgian media, on the other hand, could afford to be more scathing in their assessment. It was not hard to find a touch of Schadenfreude in one headline on Het Nieuwsblad's website on Saturday evening: “Dutch mess should emulate Belgian team play.”

In the Netherlands, the debate has only just begun.

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