But where will it stop? At 39, Annemiek van Vleuten became the oldest world champion in history – men and women alike – on Saturday in Wollongong (Australia), winning her second title in the road race after 2019. She beat Lotte Kopecky (Belgium) and Silvia Persico (Italy) who could tap their handlebars in anger at having been had.
Yet not the strongest of the day
She had announced it, with her fractured right elbow, she ” was at the start to help her teammates “. But, problem for the Batavians, Demi Vollering, the spare leader, withdrew following a positive Covid test just before the race. Marianne Vos, quadruple world champion, was therefore to be the headliner for the Dutch.
After the appearance of rain in the final part of the race, a group of five broke away during the penultimate passage of Mount Pleasant, 25 kilometers from the finish: Ludwig, Longo-Borghini, Niewiadoma , Lippert and Moolman, only candidates for the title. No trace of Van Vleuten, Vos or even of the Frenchwoman Juliette Labous, outdistanced and relegated to more than 30”.
Taken over for the first time by a first peloton – in particular thanks to the work of Van Vleuten and Van Dijk for their sprinter -, the five women returned to the same place during the last lap of the circuit. Stronger than their opponents, they managed to make a first break when there were less than ten kilometers to go.
A suspenseful finale
Despite this, the finale remained undecided, with three groups separated by seconds. In the second, we found in particular Van Vleuten, Labous or Kopecky, the Belgian sprinter. At a third rung, Marianne Vos was counting on a regrouping to make her top speed speak. It will never happen, the Dutchwoman being content with 14th place at 13”.
On the other hand, shortly before the red flame, the first two groups merged under the impetus of the Swiss. Lotte Kopecky, the only sprinter in this leading group, saw the rainbow jersey getting closer. Big mistake. Still just on the last small slope of the course, Van Vleuten picked up again at 900 meters and attacked straight away, taking advantage of his speed. Nobody wanting to make the effort behind, the Dutchwoman was able to keep a golden second on the finish line. After the three Grand Tours and Liège-Bastogne-Liège, the Dutchwoman concludes a historic season in apotheosis.
Among the French, Juliette Labous, who returned with Van Vleuten in the final moments, could not catch the wheel of the Dutchwoman on her attack and settled for a seventh place in the sprint.