Annemiek van Vleuten and Marianne Vos will lead a powerful seven-rider Dutch squad at the 2022 UCI Road World Championships held from September 18-25 in Wollongong, Australia.
Van Vleuten has won both the Giro d’Italia Donne and Tour de France Femmes this season and has marked Worlds as one of her final goals of the season.
Van Vleuten will be one of the favourites to win the world title having last won the rainbow jersey in the elite women’s road race at 2019 Worlds after an audacious 104km solo attack in Harrogate.
In Wollongong, Van Vleuten will be part of a team that also includes three-time road race World Champion Vos, who finished second last year at Worlds in Leuven and this year won a remarkable eighth world title at the Cyclo-cross World Championships and 32nd career stage win at the Giro d’Italia Donne.
National team coach Loes Gunnewijk believes the road race route could favour both Van Vleuten and Vos with the Mount Keira ascent, and then the six city circuits featuring a climb of Mount Pleasant.
”The course of the road race is too tough for the real sprinters with about 2,600 vertical metres in total. In the first loop, the riders are presented with the Mount Keira, a climb of 8.5 kilometres. They then ride the Wollongong City Circuit six times, which includes Mount Pleasant. That is a climb that resembles the Cauberg but is a bit steeper,” Gunnewijk said.
“Annemiek has shown that she can go for the win on both climbing and difficult classic courses. With Marianne Vos we have an asset for the final in which the punchers can come forward more.”
The elite women’s road team will also include runner-up at the Tour de France Femmes Demi Vollering, Floortje Mackaij, time trial World Champion Ellen van Dijk, national road champion Riejanne Markus, and Shirin van Anrooij, who is the team’s only under-23 rider.
Although there will be an under-23 world title available for the first time this year, in a race that is combined into the elite women’s event, Gunnewijk noted that the Dutch team will be focused on securing the elite women’s title in Wollongong.
“In the time trial, Shirin van Anrooij can score high in the under-23 category, but in the road race I just looked at the strongest possible group, which we will definitely need in a race that is expected to be difficult to control. We have a strong group of riders in house and certainly also candidates to go for the world title.”
Van Dijk will line up as the defending champion in the individual time…
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