Annemiek Inherits the Earth
The descent is fast and the right-hand bend tightens towards the exit. The road surface is smooth but is edged by drainage gutters some 18 inches deep which are in turn lined by taller exposed concrete kerbs. As the cavalcade of support vehicles comes through for the final time in this Olympic road race, the distinctive chirp of a car tyre struggling to stay in contact with the road surface can be heard above the noise of engines and the distant thrum of the TV helicopters from the lead commissionaire car.
The race leader in the distinctive Oranje colours of the Dutch national team hugs the inside of the turn, left leg straight, pushing down on the pedal, her right knee bent and pointing into the apex. As the bend tightens, the bike’s course drifts inexorably to the outside. The rider seeks to correct the drift, but the back wheel locks briefly and lurches as the rider grabs handfuls of brake. It’s too late. The bike pitches on the axis of its front wheel, launching the rider over the bars inevitably and sickeningly end-over-end into the ditch and the waiting kerbs.
The figure of Annemiek van Vleuten lies over the kerbstone, almost in a loose recovery position. Her head is down, pointing back towards the road protected by her white helmet and her right arm bent instinctively across her face. There is no movement or moan or plaintive cry of pain or for help. Silence.
Many of us watching that 2016 Olympic Women’s Road Race feared the worst but remarkably Annemiek van Vleuten suffered “only” 3 lumbar spinal fractures as well as a severe concussion following her brush with the asphalt and aggregates of the Vista Chinesa. Perhaps even more remarkably she was back racing – and winning – barely a month later taking 2 stages, GC and the mountains classification at the Lotto Belgium Tour.
Four years on, the Mitchelon-Scott rider is arguably in the form of her life. She remains unbeaten since winning the World Championship in a 2019 season that also saw her win Strade Bianche, Liege-Bastogne-Liege, all 3 classifications at the Giro Rosa and a fourth Dutch National Time Trial Championship.
In this COVID-disrupted season which she kicked off with a win at Het Nieuwsblad in February, she has returned from lockdown with 3 wins in Spain and, this past weekend, rode a perfectly-timed race to take her second Strade Bianche.
And yet, van Vleuten is not necessarily a name that springs most readily to mind when you mention Dutch women’s cycling. That honour, of course, goes to Marianne Vos. Vos is some 4 years van Vleuten’s junior and despite injury in recent seasons and the dominance of past years gone, the shadow of probably the greatest women rider of all time is cast long.
Perhaps van Vleuten’s earlier palmares makes it easy to glibly consider her more of a time trial specialist (she is after all a double World ITT Champion) but while the stars in the Vos constellation may be burning a little less brighter these days, you can’t help get the impression that, at the age of 37, Annemiek van Vleuten’s stellar evolution is just moving into its main sequence.