Annemiek Van Vleuten wins eighth round of UCI Women’s World Cup – Cycling News
Eighth round of UCI Women’s World Cup has been won by Annemiek Van Vleuten. The 28-year-old accelerated towards victory as she overcame Eleonora Van Dijk and Nicole Cooke in penultimate World Cup round replacing Marianne Vos her team-mate.
World Cup leader’s jersey holder Marianne Vos was in a perfect position amongst the bunch but could not continue to build any lead. She then realised that her team-mate could win the event as she celebrated for her as she passed the finish line. Vos finished
at 17th position with the nearest competitor, Emma Johansson of Hitec Products who finished at tenth.
“She [Johansson] wasn’t near the front and her team had done much of the work to try to close the gap and I think it was all too much in the end. We knew Annemiek was strong and she had really good legs,” Vos said as she shared her thoughts after her team-mate
won the event.
Vleuten dominated the race with three and a half rounds remaining and it turns out to be the most crucial moment of the race as the a group consisting of Van Vleuten, Cooke, Irene van den, Iris Slappendal, Oxana and Regina Bruins were amongst the race leaders.
She was leading the race with 250 metres remaining and crossed the finish line in style as she sprinted her way through to victory with a shout of joy. Vleuten expressed her delight on winning the event and said, “I was there with a lot of Dutch girls and
it was perfect. We worked well together. It was exciting because the gap wasn’t very big.”
Van Vleuten further added that she was feeling really strong and her legs were responding pretty good as she crossed the finish line with 800 meters remaining.
With one round remaining on August 27, the top three cyclists in the World Cup standings are Van Vleuten with 287 points, Vos on 280 points and Johansson with 212 points.
Annemiek Van Vleuten finished the race first with 3:19:49 followed by Eleonora Van Dijk second and Nicole Cooke on the third position.
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