'I want to race both the Giro and Tour' - Annemiek van Vleuten outlines final targets
World Champion discusses plans for last seas♏on before retirement and her strate𝓀gies for forging through obstacles
Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) has revealed that she will aim to compete in the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Giro d'Italia Donne and the 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift in 2023, her final seaso🧔n before r𝐆etiring from a sparkling 16-year career.
“I am clear I want to race both the Giro and the Tour again. It is something that I have already been talking about with my coach and with my team. I still love racing in Italy, and I want to ride one more Giro," Van Vleuten saiꦦd in an interview with .
Van Vleuten is a favourite to win the first-ever women's version of♈ the prestigious French Velo d'Or award this year for her remarkable season that saw her win the overall titles at Giro d'Italia Donne, Tour de France Femmes and Challeng﷽e by La Vuelta, and the elite women's road race at the World Championships.
The growth of women's cyclin𝓡g over the past five seasons has been unprecedented, largely due to th♛e sport's professionalisation, including live television coverage of the Women's WorldTour and the success of the rebirth of the women's Tour de France.
Van Vleuten has become an international household name, but she admitted that she is not u꧙🍌sed to the attention and popularity.
"Sometimes it makes me uncomfortable," said Van Vleuten. "I've noticed, for example, when people who don't know me before join my local tra✨ining group, and they say something like, 'it's an honour to have you join us.' With something like this, I feel treated as a 'star' instead of Annemiek, the person — from their point of view, of course, because I don't see myself as such. That's why I prefer to go out with people who have known me since I started in this."
In her final year of her professional racing career Van Vleuten is focussing on two mai💜n blocks of races; the first includes the Spring Classics an꧑d the revamped seven-day La Vuelta Femenina from May 1-7. The second block is expected to take in the Giro from June 30 to July 9 and the Tour from July 23 to 30.
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Handling setbacks and overcoming obstacles
Van Vleuten's se🍒ason and career haven't been without their challenges, and she has success𓄧fully come back from both serious and minor injuries.
“I'm not the type of person who believes that someone is destined to have certain things happen to them more than other people. Of course, sometimes I'm the first to joke about it and call myself a 'drama queen' as a way to take the edge off, but more seriously, I'm aware that, most of the time, it's just bad luck," she told El Peloton.
Having recovered from injuries sustained in a crash during the inaugur💧al Parisꦚ-Roubaix last October💎, Van Vleuten came into this season ready to tackle her specific goals.
Less than a week after taking a decisive win at 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:Li&egrav🗹e;geꩵ–Bastogne–Liège, she 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:broke her wrist in a training crash in April. In May, she was unharmed in a '168澳洲5最新开奖结果:controlled crash' while wearing the maglia rosa at the Giro and went on to win stage 8. She also 168澳洲5✨最新开奖结果:crashed in the team time trial mixed relay and fractured her elbow and went on to 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:win the elite women's road race at the Wollongong Worlds.
These aren't her first setbacks; recall the devastating crash at the 2016 Olympic Games that left her with a 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:severe concussion and spinal fractures. She also broke her knee in a crash during the road race at the 2018 Worlds and finished seventh, and she 168澳洲5最新开奖结果:fractured her wrist at the ﷺGiro just ahead of the 2020 Worlds and still finish🔯ed second in the road race.
Asked how she handles these setbacks, Van Vleuten told El Peloton, “Sometimes it iܫsඣ difficult. Especially last year, after Paris-Roubaix, I remember telling my coach that I found less and less energy to get back up after an accident. But it was a feeling that only lasted 24 hours, and then I quickly started to feel more optimistic.
"Setting small, realistic goals, day after 🅺day, helps. You gain experience with previous similar situations that you can use for the next time - a victory tastes even better when it comes after having overcome an obstacle."
Kirsten Frattini is the Deputy Editor of Cyclingnews, overseeing the global racing content plan.
Kirsten has a backgro꧙und in Kinesiology and Health Science. She has been involved in cycling from the community and grassroots level to professional cycling's biggest races, r🦄eporting on the WorldTour, Spring Classics, Tours de France, World Championships and Olympic Games.
She began her sports journalism career with Cyclingnews as a North American Correspondent in 2006. In 2018, Kirsten became Women's Editor – o🎀verseeing the content strategy, race coverage and growth of women's professional cycling – before becoming Deputy Editor in 2023.