An eleventh-placed finish at her final Amstel Gold Race sadly means that Annemiek van Vleuten will finish her career without a victory at the Dutch classic. The 40-year-old believes the awful weather conditions were to blame.
"Halfway through the race I felt enough that it wouldn't be for today. The cold hit me and the legs were just completely exhausted," said a shivering van Vleuten immediately after the finish in her post-race interview. “You can see how cold I am. I didn't expect it to get this cold, my legs were just completely broken."
It was another dominant display for Team SD Worx as Demi Vollering took the race win ahead of Lotte Kopecky in second. With van Vleuten having to settle for eleventh, the Amstel Gold Race will now forever remain absent from her extremely impressive palmares.
"Usually I can get it a bit warmer with a raincoat," van Vleuten continues. "But now it just stayed cold. I also told the teammates to go for Liane, because it wouldn't be him for me anymore," she concludes, referencing Liane Lippert who eventually finished in fifteenth.
Tough luck out there for our Blues in 🇳🇱 @Amstelgoldrace | #AGRwomen… 😥 We tried all sorts of moves to make the race selective, including the decisive acceleration up the Cauberg with @LianeLippert, but it wasn’t meant to be. @AvVleuten takes 11th behind solo winner Vollering…
