Annemiek van Vleuten has recently retired from a sparkling cycling career, and as she settles into her life after pro sports, she looks back on her most memorable moments which include some of the sport’s most dramatic victories.
Since joining the pro ranks in 2008, Van Vleuten’s name has become synonymous with her aggressive racing style, audacious solo attacks and winning record that spans Spring Classics, Grand Tours, World Championships and Olympic Games.
Her list of accolades is extensive, but we can all agree that some of the highlights of her career include the overall victory at the Tour de France Femmes, four overall titles at the Giro d’Italia Women, three overall wins at the now-called La Vuelta Femenina, two wins at the Tour of Flanders, Liège-Bastogne-Liège and Strade Bianche, the two road race and time trial victories at the World Championships and gold in the time trial at the Olympic Games.
There are numerous big and small victories in between that have added to what has become one of the most successful cycling careers of all time. However, in her own words as part of an interview published on YouTube by her Movistar Team ahead of her final race of her career, Van Vleuten has selected the seven victories that have meant the most to her in order, from seventh to first.
Exactly ten years after her first victory at the 2011 Tour of Flanders on the streets of Meerbeke, Van Vleuten won her second title, this time in Oudenaarde, at the 2021 Tour of Flanders. While wearing the European Champion’s jersey, Van Vleuten attacked from a small group of favourites on the final climb with 14km to go, before extending her gap from seven seconds at the top of the Paterberg to 25 seconds at the finish. From the chase group, Lisa Brennauer (then Ceratizit-WNT) beat Grace Brown (then BikeExchange) in the sprint for second place.
After crossing the finish line, Van Vleuten said, “I had been hoping for this for ten years after my 2011 victory, and now it all fell into place. I am very proud, especially for my new team Movistar, the girls worked very hard for me, I was the number-one leader and could finish it off like this … I think we are going to celebrate big tonight.”
It was van Vleuten’s first season with Movistar in 2021, a team that she helped build into one of the top-ranked squads in the world upon her retirement at the end of 2023. “The [2021 Tour of…
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