'I am looking forward to a big adventure' says van der Breggen
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Anna van der Breggen leads Annika Langvad at Afxentia Stage Race 2018(Image credit: Cyprus Sunshine Cup)
Anna van der Breggen with her gold medal(Image credit: Getty Images)
Anna van der Breggen (Netherlands) (Image credit: Getty Images)
The disappointment of Annika Langvad (Denmark) was hard to miss(Image credit: Rob Jones)
Annika Langvad (Specialized Racing) takes her 5th Short Track win(Image credit: Rob Jones)
Boels Dolmans teammates Anna van der Breggen, road world champion, and Annika Langvad, marathon mountain bike world champion, will team up to compete in Cape Epic held from March 18-25 in South Africa.
"I am looking forward to a big adventure and to do something I never did before," Van der Breggen said in a press release Wednesday. "I cannot wait to participate in one of the toughest mountain biking challenges in the world."
Van der Breggen will compete in the Cape Epic with her new teammate Langvad, who races with Specialized during the mountain bike season and with Boels Dolmans on the road beginning in 2019.
They will both race in the Sunshine Cup held in Afxentia from February 22-25 on the island of Cyprus as preparation for Cape Epic. Last year, van der Breggen started her season with a victory at the Sunshine Cup event and went on to race her first mountain bike World Cup in Val di Sole.
She expressed an interest in changing up her cycling career to include new challenges such as mountain biking, while going on to a successful road season winning Strade Bianche and the Tour of Flanders, and then Flèche Wallonne, Liège-Bastogne-Liège, and Durango Emakumeen Sira. She ended her season by winning the elite women’s road race world title in Innsbruck in September.
Van der Breggen said is looking forward to once again starting her season with mountain biking and is teaming up with Langvad at the Cape Epic.
"I will start the race very motivated," van der Breggen said. "During this adventure, I can rely on a very experienced team ,and of course, of all the experience Annika brings along as defending champion.”
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Langvad is a former five-time marathon world champion, and was the cross-country world champion in 2016. She has won Cape Epic four times and is the defending champion.
"Riding with Anna during the Cape Epic is of course also exciting for me,” she said. “We both bring different experiences to play. In this respect it is also a new adventure for me. I am sure that we will form a strong team.”
