Women's Individual Time Trial podium: 🥇 Annemiek van Vleuten 🇳🇱 🥈 Marlen Reusser 🇨🇭 🥉 Anna van der Breggen 🇳🇱 #Tokyo2020 #自転車ロード #CyclingRoad
Anna van der Breggen to make return to pro cycling! Cycling legend to race for SD Worx after Demi Vollering's departure
CyclingThursday, 20 June 2024 at 11:22
Team SD Worx - ProTime have called for an urgent press conference this Thursday to present exciting news for the world of cycling. But the cat is out of the bag: Cycling legend Anna van der Breggen is returning to pro cycling three years after retirement according to sources.
This has been reported by reputable Dutch source NOS. The press conference was only announced yesterday and will take place today at 18:00CET, but the reason for this is seemingly not private anymore. Huge news were expected, with some rumouring a new title sponsor or the merger with a men's team, but NOS report that the reason is van der Breggen's return.
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The former Dutch pro is perhaps, together with Marianne Vos, the most notable rider in women's cycling history. This is not by chance, the 34-year old is an Olympic Champion (2016 Rio de Janeiro), double World Champion (2018 and 2020), four-time Giro Rosa winner (2015, 2017, 2020 and 2021); winner of classics such as the Tour of Flanders WE, Strade Bianche and perhaps most impressively a consecutive seven-time winner of the Flèche Wallone - having won every edition between 2015 and 2021.
At the end of the 2021 season, aged 31, she decided to retire from pro cycling despite being at the top. "I’m not quitting because I don’t like to ride anymore; in the end I like riding my bike but without the pressure of having to do it, needing to train, needing to be good for the first race," van der Breggen had said in an interview with Rouleur back in 2021. "It’s relaxing to ride the bike in a way I never did before."
But she did not leave cycling, remaining with the team where she spent the last years of her career: Team SD Worx - Protime. She became a Sports Director immediately and helped the team into success that became even bigger; being behind the wheel in meaningful wins of riders such as Demi Vollering, Lotte Kopecky and Lorena Wiebes.
After three years behind the wheel she is set to make a return to the peloton. Over these years she did not stop cycling and, with her natural talent and still relative young age (Annemiek van Vleuten retired at 40 last season), she could still very well be competitive at top level. As the team is set to say goodbye to Demi Vollering at the end of the season, van der Breggen could end up being the unexpected new leader for next season.
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- First of all, I hope now all is ok with your baby!. Yeah, about to not accept foreign phone number is a big problem also for me. I have economic interests in 2 countries, I think that all can be ok with my Italian number... but NO! The world is globalized but not for bureaucracies.
maria2024202424-11-2024 - First of all, calm, this is a site to share point of views, doubts, intuitions about cycling. Let's think about it: if someone tells you that he is very tired but is going to run unimportant races immediately, ignoring a world championship much further away in time that would give him the opportunity to rest, there is something very contradictory. Maybe it is fair, but as a simple spectator I (and many others) do not understand it, it does not make sense.maria2024202424-11-2024
- I think the other side has said plenty, given comments about her reputation like what Renz said above. Perhaps this is her chance to speak up against that reputation? I have no idea but her comments seem pretty human, even if each person has their own version of the story.RidesHills24-11-2024
- Give her a team built around her with no competing leaders, like Pogacar has at UAE or Vingegaard has at Visma (seeing how Roglic left), and I wonder how Vollering would do. She’s already so good, and a team dedicated to her could make her even better.RidesHills24-11-2024
- Those injuries, an ability to manage pain and push himself, probably a load of TUEs to help him get back from an awful moment, and competing that hard without the long exercise base that was the norm - no wonder he was exhausted. We’ve now had two consecutive seasons of the second place rider having an injury that interrupts training, and it shows to what level their bodies are tuned for the insane task of winning the Tour. I certainly hope both (and their teams!) are healthy next year. It would be a first, after 4 years.RidesHills24-11-2024
- Winners seem to be like this. Win or lose, it is always on to the next thing. They don’t celebrate the big win, they don’t worry about the painful loss. They move on. It’s an amazing skill. But to be able to ride (and win) while not being able to walk? That’s a level of pain management that boggles my mind. Of course they have it, given what they put their bodies through, but it’s just crazy.RidesHills24-11-2024
- Poor Demi. But she behaves the same way when riding for the national team. Bring me my tiny violin.Renz24-11-2024
- good pointsmij24-11-2024
- Yes, please tell us based on your superior expertise about why JVs training and race schedule is wrong 🧐Crashjames24-11-2024
- I'd like to hear what the other side has to say.mij24-11-2024