Just one step from the podium in Siena
The European champion, well accompanied by the Movistar team, shows her good level in her 2nd appearance of the year and finishes on the edge of the podium.
Former world champion Chantal van den Broek-Blaak (SDW) finished first in the 7th edition of the Strade Bianche, the first round of the UCI Women’s WorldTour 2021. A final break with Elisa Longo Borghini (TFS) who jumped after the last stages of sterrato. A getaway anticipated by Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar Team), whose courage once again left no one indifferent.
The European champion exhibited her power in the last sector of gravel, Le Tolfe, a dozen kilometres from the end, after having caught up with a forward group of eight, in which her partner Jelena Eric had escaped. Van Vleuten – backed from the start by Biannic, Rodríguez, Aalerud and Thomas, in addition to the Serb – left the former Olympic champion Vos (TJV) behind her, an attempt that was finally neutralised by another group of a dozen riders.
In the end, only Van den Broek-Blaak and Longo Borghini broke away and the world champion Van der Breggen (SDW) beat Annemiek, who after her 2021 debut will return to competition in April in the Flemish lands.
STATEMENTS / Annemiek van Vleuten:
“Very happy with my race today, I am very satisfied with the result. I think I have not made much of a mistake and we have done everything we could, both myself and, above all, my colleagues. It gives me a lot of confidence to see them so well and in my case, after the disappointment in the Omloop that caused me to be cut by going in a bad position, today I have tried to avoid those mistakes and I think that I have always been where I should have been. We are not far away, the victory we want will surely come soon and we just have to keep working and looking forward.”
Cover image (c): BettiniPhoto