It was a devastating early end to last season for Annemiek van Vleuten, crashing hard at Paris-Roubaix and facing up to a challenging recovery, but again the Movistar rider has proved how adeptly she can deliver a speedy and powerful comeback by starting 2022 with overall victory at Setmana Ciclista Valenciana.
Van Vleuten set the foundation for the overall win on stage 3, with its trio of category 1 ascents, showing there were no weak links or signs of being underdone as a result of the recovery from two fractures to her pubic bone as she attacked on the final climb and rode away solo to accrue the stage victory and a minute on her nearest key rivals. That meant it was just a matter of defending through the final stage, which looked like one for the sprinters as the key climb was a less imposing category 3 which crested more than 30km from the finish.
Grace Brown (FDJ Nouvelle-Aquitaine Futuroscope), who started the day 2:31 back on the overall, tried to throw a spanner in the works for the Dutch rider who last year topped the Women’s WorldTour and UCI ranking. Brown got into the break and then rode away solo but Van Vleuten used the building experience of her teammates to help her defend.
“The team drove and checked really well from the front all day,” said van Vleuten on her website. “Grace Brown pulled away and we started driving immediately to check the lead to within two minutes. At the top it was one and a half minutes, with thirty kilometers to the finish.”
There were other teams quite content to take over driving the pace once the race was over the final climb, including Brown’s former team BikeExchange-Jayco, as they chased a chance for stage victory.
“As expected, after that climb, help came from teams that went for a sprint," said Van Vleuten. "Plus, it also helped that Team BikeExchange wanted to release some sprinters, in favor of their sprinter Ruby Roseman-Gannon. For me personally there was nothing to gain today, except drive safely to the finish and secure the jersey. We did that well.”
Brown was caught within 10km of the finish line, while Marta Bastianelli (UAE Team ADQ) took the stage win and Van Vleuten rolled in with the large bunch five seconds back to easily secure the overall in her first race of the season. It was also her first race since that Paris-Roubaix crash, delivering another strong comeback to add to the one she delivered after the horrific 2016 Olympic Games fall while descending – where she suffered three fractured vertebrae and a concussion – and the silver medal effort at the 2020 Road World Championships just ten days after breaking her wrist at the Giro d’Italia Donne.
“If you realize that it’s only four-and-a-half months ago that I crashed so badly in Roubaix, and left only my crutches behind in mid December – to be able to already do this… it’s so nice to start the season this way,” said Van Vleuten in a team statement. “It’s also nice to take the pressure off my shoulders, to show that both myself and the team are back. It’s also a Spanish race, which makes it … a bigger goal for the team.
“It’s nice to start here in the sun than in classics temperatures, also doing it in a little bit more relaxed way. You can work for four days with the team, keep learning, processing goals – which is important to take lessons for the Giro and the Tour de France. All in all, a great way to start my 2022 season!"
