Annemiek van Vleuten has made her way into the history books of women's cycling and 2023 will be her final year as a professional rider. After an historic 2022 campaign she looks back on her greatest achievements and on her career.
"The victory in yellow on La Planche was the best way to finish it off," van Vleuten said in an interview with Cyclingnews. "It was special. All the spectators cheering my name on the way up and down." Van Vleuten was voted the winner of the women's Velo d'Or understandably after a season packed with victories including the Tour, Giro and Vuelta, alongside the World Championships where she won despite having fractured her elbow the days prior to the race.
No-one could match her prowess throughout the year, specially thinking of the climbs and mountainous races, where she hardly found competition. At 40 years of age now she found the best form of her life, and doesn't intend to stay away from the wins in the coming year.
"Every year, I sit down with my coach, and we have a dinner to evaluate the last year and make a plan for the new year. Every year, he says, 'It cannot be better than this year.' But it was by far my best year ever," she continued. "All the goals I set, apart from performing well in the individual time trial at the World Championships, all the goals I had this season came true. It's unbelievable.
"Results-wise but also performance-wise, I still improved because I had my best 5, 10 and 20-minute power outputs this year. I turned 40, but I'm still improving with the numbers. It means my level still goes up, which is necessary because the [women's peloton] around me gets better and better. The quality of the field is higher, and it's harder to win, so still having quite a season is amazing," she continued.
Having victories at the Olympic Games, World Championships, Tour des Flandres, La Course by Le Tour de France, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Strade Bianche and many more she has made herself a leading figure in this generation. In 2023 she's capable of bringing her palmarès to an even higher level, in such a way as compatriot Marianne Vos
"I learned from Marianne that fun is the foundation for a good performance. specially at the beginning of our careers, we were sprinting for signs and had a lot of fun on the bike, we made a lot of errors and worked hard, but fun was always the basis. In that way, she was my role model, and I was happy that I rode with her as a teammate during the first years of my career," he continued.
"When I look back to my first year on a UCI team, I think we did everything in a small van. We did Tour du Limousin in a small van together, and the next race was a team time trial in Sweden, and we travelled for two days in that van. I got paid €100 a month. When I look at where we are now, that is also why I was over the moon to have the Tour de France this year. It was such a massive milestone that it was organised for us, and [ASO] wanted to create that race for us," van Vleuten commented.
Next season she will be wearing the rainbow stripes together with Movistar Team where she found her best form, and will be a rider to take into consideration in races throughout the entire season.
"To become World Champion and to wear the rainbow jersey is a confirmation, for me, that stopping next year - after wearing the rainbow jersey for the whole season - is the best way to stop. I don't have any doubts. I will enjoy it until the end of next year," she concluded.
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