Few riders have raced alongside or against Anna van der Breggen more than veteran Ellen van Dijk (Lidl-Trek), with the latter confident that her Dutch compatriot will be competing for wins and quickly back to her best as she returns to racing for SD Worx-Protime in 2025, three years after retiring.
Van Dijk and Van der Breggen were cornerstones of the Dutch women's World Championships team for all of the 2010s, alongside the likes of Marianne Vos and Annemiek van Vleuten. They raced at eight elite road races together between 2012 and 2021, including Van der Breggen's two victories in 2018 and 2020, and were often closely matched in time trials, taking four ITT world titles between them too.
Having witnessed Van der Breggen's drive, training, and focus first-hand, Van Dijk is certain that her countrywoman will quickly be one of the very top riders once again.
"I've known her for kind of her whole career, almost. We raced a lot together and against each other also. For the national team, we have been together on altitude camps and everything so I know her pretty well," Van Dijk told Cyclingnews and Eurosport FR at Lidl-Trek's January training camp.
"I'm convinced she's gonna come back straight away really strong. I think for sure she will reach at least the level she had when she retired already and I expect her to be straight away competitive for the win."
Van der Breggen bowed out of racing at the very top of the sport ahead of the 2022 season and the start of her new job as a directeur sportif, however, announced in June that she would be back in the professional peloton in 2025.
"At one point I thought 'Why not? I missed cycling," Van der Breggen told media including Cyclingnews last week as she lifted the lid on why she's returning. "In the back of my mind, somewhere I thought 'I can still do this well, so what and I doing [sitting] in a car'."
But the Dutchwoman is also aware that a lot has changed since her last race at the Worlds in 2021, with greater professionalism, more money, and bigger events such as the Tour de France Femmes all coming into the women's cycling landscape.
Van der Breggen believes that she'll need to reach a new high level to compete as she did before, as a former Olympic champion, four-time Giro winner, seven-time La Flèche Wallonne winner, and multiple-time world champion. Still, Van Dijk sees this as no issue for the 34-year-old.
"When she quit, she was on the highest level and she is a great rider. Anna was really at the top of the top and she knows what she needs to do to be at that level," said Van Dijk, also acknowledging that Van der Breggen will be aware of what the top level is, having helped mentor 2023 Tour de France Femmes winner Demi Vollering to where she is now as her former coach.
"It's not like she didn't do anything for three years. She was still training, of course, in a different way, but she was not racing. However, she knew already for a year that she wanted to come back.
"I feel like she knows exactly what level she needs to be at. She also knows, for example, Demi's level and what she has to train for. With her talent and her character and everything in the way I see her training and doing things now, I'm totally convinced she will be there again."
Van Dijk clarified that she hasn't actually seen Van der Breggen in training but that having known her for a very long time believes there's no way she isn't training at maximum capacity for a fiery return and clash with the likes of Vollering, who moved teams to FDJ-Suez from SD Worx-Protime in summer.
"No, I actually don't see her training, but it's just the rumours you hear – people are talking about it, of course," Van Dijk says with a smile. "No, it's just that she trains a lot, is on a lot of training camps, and that she's not taking it lightly saying 'Oh, I will see where I go'. She's going for it.
"She made this decision and I wouldn't assume it any other way. If she puts her head to something, I'm sure she will be ready."
