Another great result in her incredible 2021 season
The Movistar Team Olympic champion fights to the end on a long-distance time trial, for pure specialists, and manages to get on the podium less than half a minute behind her compatriot Van Dijk (NED / TFS), the new rainbow wearer at almost 51 km/h on average.
Faced with a completely flat track and against cyclists weighing ten kilos more than her, Annemiek van Vleuten was also able to once again demonstrate her infinite quality and take the bronze in the 2021 TT World Championship, held this Monday on 30.3 km between Knokke-Heist and Bruges, in Flanders (Belgium).
The Movistar Team rider and the Dutch national team conceded a good part of the 24″ distance to the new wearer of the rainbow jersey, Ellen van Dijk (NED / TFS), on the long straights of the first half, where she, as well as Reusser (SUI / ALE), ultimately silver, lost around twenty seconds. The distances remained almost unchanged in the second set – Annemiek was rolling, 7 km from the end, 16″ from Reusser and 13″ from Van Dijk -, and only the powerful final effort of her compatriot finally opened the differences a bit more.
Van Vleuten thus achieves her fourth medal in a World Time Trial, after her two golds – Bergen 2017 and Innsbruck 2018 – and the other bronze, in her last participation, in Yorkshire 2019. The Movistar Team leader still has two more tests ahead: the road race, next Saturday, and a mixed relay (Wednesday) where she will once again have options to get on the podium.
STATEMENTS / Annemiek van Vleuten:
“I think I have done everything I could, that I was able to display a high level in this time trial and that I have to leave very satisfied with this bronze, because of how the route was and how strong the two rivals I have had were were. for the title. They have been better and Ellen deserves that jersey. I was very happy for her when I learned that she had won. It was not a track that suited me well, and this year the times I was able to beat them were more mountainous tracks, but today I didn’t have that advantage. It was not a lack of strength or motivation, but simply the type of route. I am very happy, because the power data has been very good. For the rest, the radio has not worked well for me, since the first corner, and I was without any communication about the differences. That is why I am ‘happy’, in quotes, that the difference was 24″ and not one or two seconds, because then the information I had would have been key…“.
Photo credit (c): Photo Gomez Sport