"I know what I have to do to get even better" - Third place in Valenciana a huge motivation boost for returning Anna van der Breggen
Cycling
The long awaited competitive return of Anna van der Breggen went better than some, herself included, would have expected. She may have been lacking a bit to keep up with Demi Vollering, but the signal is more then clear - the two-time world champion is back!
On the final climb (Alto de Barx) of the opening stage of Setmana Valenciana, Vollering set a brutal pace that one two of her competitors were able to keep up with. At least briefly. And among those two was shocking Van der Breggen. In her first race in over 40 months! The FDJ - Suez rider eventually dropped both Marlene Reusser and Van der Breggen, but it's nevertheless a great sign for the 34-year-old.
"I didn't expect that, but I did hope for it," Van der Breggen told NOS in an interview after the stage. "I noticed at the beginning of the stage that positioning myself in the peloton already cost me a lot of energy. That I could stay with Demi for so long was therefore beyond my expectations."
"When the first good climbers dropped away, I thought: so it's going well after all. I would have preferred to stay with Demi until the end, but that wasn't possible. It is a great motivation for now. In terms of climbing, this was of course a snapshot and only a relatively short climb. So it won't always be like this. But I was close and I know what I have to do to get even better."
Van der Breggen is now aiming her preparation towards the first goals of the season with a good feeling and confidence. These are the spring classics, including Strade Bianche, Amstel Gold Race and Liège-Bastogne-Liège. "I want to compete at the front there so I can win a race. I will continue training now and I hope to be in the best possible position there. Who knows what will come of it," concludes Van der Breggen.
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- Too much amatuer psychology. How about this: "he was never as good as when he had not suffered multiple career-threatening injuries." What is happening to him is what happened to Alaphilippe, Bernal, and others. You will notice that his two major peers -- MVDP and Mads - are both at their all time best. You will also note that neither is coming off of anything like the same last 18 months that Wout is. Go back to 2022, then roll the tape forward with Wout remaining healhty and one of them having had multiple traumatic falls. Odds are good he'd be at his dominant best and they would not.MidnightRider31-03-2025
- Raymond Poulidor, Alfredo Binda.... where do we stop. If you want to retitle it is Primoz Roglic the bestr rider never to win the tour in the last ten or 20 years then that might be betterslappers6631-03-2025
- Let me help you. Alfredo BindaUpHill31-03-2025
- He'll certainly last it and prob ride his own race, at the front 😁
leedorney31-03-2025 - Gaio Primus Caesar Roglus, Rome is waiting for you, Imperator :-)).
maria2024202431-03-2025 - And he probably wasn’t even at the limit ;-) Have to wonder how much Mads could catch up if he’d tune his physique to be as sharp as MVDPs’Mistermaumau31-03-2025
- Respect for giving Van Eetvelt credit there.Mistermaumau31-03-2025
- He’s already a star for me for HAVING complained about it, the recent trend having been, let them then try to take advantage by making them sign NDAs ;-)Mistermaumau31-03-2025
- Agreed, but if it was a radio thing then all the riders should have the same story and it would be easy to call anyone out. Kind of surprised this isn’t cleared up half officially afterwards, just like the Alaphilippe divorce, seems like once something spreads on the net it kind of gets accepted that everyone wants to have their own truth so no-one bothers to contest anything that’s verifiable anymore, we all just move on.Mistermaumau31-03-2025
- maybe. what makes that a LITTLE fishy is that they suddenly hit the gas and started hammering it. even mathieu, who i’ve never heard complain about ANYTHING (other than teenage girls waking him up and being spit on by belgians) was pretty hacked off about the race tactics after the split. i think he was upset for what his teammates had to do, not for the fact he ended up isolated as a result.OCexile31-03-2025