Vollering was the only rider to go with van Vleuten when she surged clear on the Petit Ballon, the first of three climbs on the day where attacks were anticipated.
Van Vleuten immediately set a high tempo that Vollering was able to match, but could only do so on the back and was content to hang on and not take turns on the front as the 39-year-old showed no signs of slowing down in her assault on the yellow jersey.
"The speed coming into the first climb was pretty high already," Vollering said following the stage.
"I was in front with Ashleigh [Moolman-Pasio] and I wanted to stay up there to avoid trouble. I saw Annemiek [Van Vleuten] and I let her do the pace.
She had a teammate with her and they moved to the front. And I was like: 'Ok, I need to stay focused because they’re trying something already'. Her teammate was a bit empty so she went already.
"I was immediately in the wheel but I was alone with her. It was a pity to not have but I was happy I could hang on. I felt really good on the first climb. I was really confident I could do it today."
Eventually, a van Vleuten attack on the second climb of the day cracked Vollering, the 25-year-old already with not enough in the tank to raise her pace any higher than it had already been just trying to stay on the wheel.
Van Vleuten went on to win the stage by 3 minutes and 26 seconds ahead of her Dutch counterpart, but Vollering had to remain determined to get through the last climb solo and finish ahead of a chase group led by Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) who was trying to catch her second spot.
"The second climb, the last kilometre, I just couldn’t go with that speed," Vollering said.
"It was too much for me. I fought with everything I had today and I know I’m in a really good shape so I think I cannot be unhappy."
While her chasers were still almost two minutes behind her in the final 20 kilometres, Vollering was clearly exhausted and had to give everything to get across the line with a decent pace, doing so to ride into a spot on the podium as well as the lead in the Queen of the Mountains classification.
She was well at her limit after crossing the finish line and was emotional when she took to the podium in the polka dots jersey, the stage having taken a toll on her.
But Vollering was optimistic about the day, managing to beat the rest of the field despite being beaten herself by van Vleuten, one of the best cyclists of her current generation.
"It’s a pretty special race and looking at the gaps to the other girls, it’s also pretty big," she said.
"That’s something really nice for the future as well. I’m still young."
The Tour de France Femmes concludes with the summit finish to Stage 8 atop the Planche des Belles Filles. Watch on the SBS SKODA Tour Tracker from 11.25pm AEST, with the SBS and SBS On Demand broadcast starting at 11.30pm AEST.
