Annemiek van Vleuten had hoped that she would add to her 2011 and 2021 victories in her farewell Tour of Flanders however a crash ended the World Champion’s probabilities of leaving a remaining historical past making mark on the race.
Van Vleuten had come into the Belgian race with the shape to compete for victory and had she achieved it could have been the primary girl ever to have gained the Tour of Flanders thrice. Nevertheless her final likelihood of taking that file earlier than retiring on the finish of the yr slipped by means of her fingers with a slip of her wheel at 48km to go that put her on the again foot at a vital stage of the twentieth version of the 158km race.
“I used to be well-positioned within the practice of Trek-Segafredo however I received off the highway into the gutter and fell. Two of my teammates waited for me, however the race was over, actually. Such a disgrace in my final Tour of Flanders. Happily, I didn’t get injured,” mentioned Van Vleuten.
Van Vleuten was fast to rise up after the crash, which got here simply earlier than the race-splitting cobbled climb of the Koppenberg and likewise resulted in Karlijn Swinkels (Jumbo-Visma) and Debora Silvestri (Zaaf Biking) coming down. Nevertheless, Van Vleuten’s chain was dislodged so she additionally needed to delay for a motorbike change and crested the Koppenberg nearly two minutes behind the entrance group.
Regardless of having no hope of victory anymore, Van Vleuten continued to push on and finally completed in twenty seventh place as a part of a peloton 3:45 minutes behind solo winner Lotte Kopecky (Staff SD Worx).
“I assumed ‘I’ll simply maintain pedalling’. In Flanders, you recognize that you simply get cheered on on a regular basis, and I might get pleasure from that,” Van Vleuten mentioned.
Although it was arduous to not surprise what might have been, particularly as Van Vleuten had simply come from coaching in Tenerife the place she was ‘in a position to take it up a notch’.
“I did my greatest 60-minute energy numbers ever, however that’s not a lot use in case you’re not within the entrance. I actually would have preferred to check my legs and see if I might have adopted Lotte,” mentioned the Movistar rider.
Van Vleuten now seems to be forward to Southern Limburg and the Ardennes, skipping Paris-Roubaix Femmes in favour of the Amstel Gold Race, Flèche Wallonne and Liège-Bastogne-Liège.
