Annemiek van Vleuten tops at the 2020 European road championships

Annemiek van Vleuten (Mitchelton–Scott) continued to pad her palmarès, adding the 2020 European road championships to her long list of wins.

In an uphill sprint to the line, the reigning world champion from the Netherlands put her wheel across the line ahead of Italian Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek–Segafredo). Pole Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon–SRAM), and Chantal van den Broek Blaak (Team Boels–Dolmans) from the Netherlands could not match the final move, and finished third and fourth, respectively, five seconds behind the top two women.

“Thanks to the Dutch squad because we lined up with a dream team,” said Van Vleuten. “Between myself and Anna van der Breggen, it was both our jobs to make the race super hard to set something up for the other girls. I was so proud to race together with my team and I am so proud to do this together.”

This is van Vleuten’s first European championships start.

With a crash at 38km to go the field was split and a gap was created, which allowed the foursome to get up the road.

The last two laps of the 109-kilometer race saw the top four women separate themselves from the peloton.

The break established nearly a minute advantage, and attempts to bridge up to the break were neutralized by the remaining Dutch squad who were at the front of the pursuing group.

While attempts were made by Niewiadoma and Longo Borghini to separate themselves from the two Dutch women, they were unsuccessful. Van Vleuten was able to bring back attacks when the road pitched upwards.

The four strung out when van Vleuten applied pressure in the final lap, at first distancing van den Broek Blaak, but then separating into two groups of two, with van den Broek Blaak reconnecting with Niewiadoma. But by this time, Niewiadoma and van den Broek Blaak were nearly 15 seconds back.

In the final two kilometers, van Vlueten attacked Longo Borghini, but the Italian was able to get on the world champion’s wheel.

Van Vlueten showed no interest in taking Longo Borghini for a tow to the line, and was able to position herself behind the Italian in the final few hundred meters uphill.

A two-up dash for the line reconfirmed the world champion’s tactical abilities.