Ahead of the 2022 UCI Road World Championships, Cyclingnews is taking a deep dive into the key teams for the elite road races. Here, we put the Netherlands under the microscope.
History
The Dutch women have enjoyed unprecedented success in recent years, taking six rainbow jerseys in the past decade as well as five silver medals. The run came after a five-year mini-drought which saw Marianne Vos collect five second places.
Since then, Vos has won twice to go with Anna van der Breggen‘s double, as well as titles from Chantal van den Broek-Blaak and Annemiek van Vleuten. All in all, the Netherlands are easily the most successful country in the history of the women’s road race, with 13 golds and 17 silvers.
It’s a different story for the men, though, with no rainbow jersey since Joop Zoetemelk’s title in 1985. Before that, names such as Jan Raas, Hennie Kuiper, and Jan Janssen contributed to the seven wins the men have taken.
Since Zoetemelk’s triumph there have only been three podiums, and only one in the past two decades – Dylan van Baarle’s silver last year.
Line-up
Women elite
- Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar)
- Marianne Vos (Jumbo-Visma)
- Demi Vollering (SD Worx)
- Floortje Mackaij (Team DSM)
- Ellen van Dijk (Trek-Segafredo)
- Riejanne Markus (Jumbo-Visma)
- Shirin van Anrooij (Trek-Segafredo)
Men elite
- Mathieu van der Poel (Alpecin-Deceuninck)
- Dylan van Baarle (Ineos Grenadiers)
- Bauke Mollema (Trek-Segafredo)
- Daan Hoole (Trek-Segafredo)
- Pascal Eenkhoorn (Jumbo-Visma)
- Wout Poels (Bahrain Victorious)
- Jan Maas (BikeExchange-Jayco)
- Taco van der Hoorn (Intermarché-Wanty-Gobert)
Key riders
Women
On a stacked team, 2019 world champion Annemiek van Vleuten is the obvious reference point. The 39-year-old has enjoyed another dominant season, winning Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Liège-Bastogne-Liège before going on to do the treble and winning the Giro d’Italia Donne, Tour de France Femmes and Ceratizit Challenge by La Vuelta.
She’s not the most likely name to win from a bunch sprint but if she manages to get away on Mount Pleasant then the rest of the peloton likely won’t see her again until the finish.
Marianne Vos is a triple road race world champion but hasn’t won the title in nine years having taken that famous run of second places in recent years. At 35 another veteran, she has eight wins to her name in 2022, including two stages apiece at the Giro and Tour.
She is arguably the top sprinter…
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