Van Vleuten or how to sign feats defeating pain

Having a degree in Animal Science and a specialist in the study of zoonosis (infectious disease that passes from animals to humans) prints character. Bioscience and research on the behavior of bacteria are passionate about Annemiek van Vleuten, the Dutch woman born in 1982 in Utrecht who breaks ground in cycling and who this year completed an unparalleled feat: she won the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, the Vuelta a España and the World Road Championships. A poker never met in the same course. Some returns achieved from adversity, resistance and immense self-confidence.

For the anthology remains his victory in the World Cup held on a rainy day in Wollongong (Australia) on September 24. the runner of the Movistar Teamin an incredible exercise of courage, took the start on a broken circuit of 164 kilometers despite having fractured elbow of right arm. A fall in the mixed relay time trial, four days earlier, had caused severe discomfort that prevented him from resting and training. Others, without hesitation, would have packed their bags, but she decided to stay and compete. She held the pace of the strongest until the final stretch, when she fell behind the leading group. She did not want to give up and with only one kilometer to go conclusion hunt for escapades and I overcame them with an acceleration on the right side of the road that was recorded as one of the culminating moments of 2022. They were endless 800 meters but crowned with a gold that repairs all wounds.

Van Vleuten (40 years old) knows a lot about pain and how to defeat it. He came to cycling at an advanced age, 26 years old, because a knee injury forced him to give up soccer. In the Rio Olympics de Janeiro 2016 suffered a fall in the road test that brought her to the brink of death after hitting her head on the asphalt. She was admitted to intensive care at a hospital with a concussion and three fractured vertebrae. She also overcame two operations on the iliac arteries, a double pubic fracture after hitting the cobblestones of Paris-Roubaix in 2021. The last edition of the Tour was won after suffering a gut virus in the early stages. She was empty, I couldn’t even put my things in the suitcase. I was close to leaving the race, he acknowledged.

The graduate in Animal Science from Wageningen University makes what seems like a pipe dream come true. She has entered the list of the best cyclists in history. In her palmars are two World Championships on the road and two against the clock, three Giros, one Tour, one Vuelta and one gold and one silver in the Olympic Games. It is only one step below the French Jeannie Longo: four Olympic medals, nine golds in World Cups and three Tours. The Spanish Joane Somarrriba sum three Tours and two Giros.

She is the jewel of Movistar, a team in which she has been a member since 2021 and in which she will retire at the end of 2023. Despite facing her farewell, she assures that she wants to continue learning and enriching her service sheet, which includes 87 victories. I don’t want to think about the time of withdrawal from her. I will try to continue enjoying it and I will take next year as one more season but knowing that it will be special. I am very happy and proud of everything I have achieved in my professional career. I still think about improving, when I started it was easier to progress because I had little experience, now I focus on improving small details. I want to get the best out of myself and the team, I assured last week at the presentation of the new Movistar Team course.

I would never have won anything without a team. On two occasions I won in the Tour because two colleagues gave me their bicycle. Without their help I would not have won, added a runner who is revered by her teammates and rivals. Because of her competitive ambition, Peter Delgado compares it with Bernard Hinault. I run with my heart. If my heart asks me to tie, I do it, warns the animal graduate.