Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) will take a break following her Olympic success and victories at Donostia San Sebastian Klasikoa and the Ladies Tour of Norway, to ensure that her form and motivation remains high for the rest of the season.
As many of her rivals were racing La Course and the Giro d’Italia Donne Van Vleuten was focussing all her efforts toward preparations for the Olympics, training in Livigno. Now that her efforts there have been rewarded with a silver medal in the road race and a gold medal in the time trial, as well as two Women’s WorldTour victories in her races following Tokyo, she’s heading straight back to the high mountains of Italy, however this time it is with a different purpose in mind.
"I'm now going back to Livigno, but not as an altitude training camp rather than 'recharge' myself,” said van Vleuten following her overall win at the Ladies Tour of Norway.
“I need to keep my motivation as high as possible for the remainder of the season, and I also want to have time to realize what I've achieved and have fun training again.”
Van Vleuten has already swept up seven one-day and stage victories this year as well as two overall wins, putting her at the top of the world rankings. Though not content to rest on her laurels, she is looking for more to challenge her in 2021.
“It's really sad for me that there aren't any really hard races left in the calendar,” said Van Vleuten.
“The TT World Championships should be a bigger target for me in the next few months, then I plan to also race the European Championships road race, which is really close to the place I'll be staying in Italy.”
Van Vleuten has twice been the world time trial champion, in 2017 and 2018, though was beaten by American rider Chloe Dygert and fellow Dutch rider Anna van der Breggen in 2019, while a fractured wrist prevented her from starting the race against the clock in 2020. She is also the current European Champion.
After both the Championship in September Van Vleuten said she will turn her attention to the rescheduled six-day Women’s Tour in Great Britain before bringing her season to a close near the end of October at the Ronde van Drenthe.
