DOUBLE DUTCH
Autumn leaves, a richer shade of Dutch orange, flecked the finishing straight. It was natural ticker tape for Anna van der Breggen’s parade. After an hour and a half and a 40km solo, with the gap growing right to the very death, Van der Breggen finally gave her pedals a break and coasted to victory a whopping 3:42 ahead of runner-up Amanda Spratt. Spratt, in turn, was 1:44 ahead of Italy’s Tatiana Guderzo. Van der Breggen would say later that the rainbow jersey filled a hole in her palmarès and the longer that it had taken to win, the more pressure had built up. “The thing I felt most when I crossed the finish line was relief that it had finally worked out,” she said.
As Van der Breggen went through the finish-line protocol, the flag-waving, hoarding-beating, face-painted crew of her family and friends celebrated. Kasia Niewiadoma, a former team-mate at Rabobank, completed her flash interviews and rolled over to pass on congratulations to those whom she recognised. The Pole led an enthusiastic chant of “An-na, An-na!” Van der Breggen’s younger sister Gerdien said, “It’s typical Anna to do it all by herself,” before dutifully getting on-message and praising the work the Dutch team had put in for her sister.
Annemiek van Vleuten, Van der Breggen’s team-mate and the other pre-race favourite, didn’t say much at all. A crash a long way out had knocked her knee, which tightened, then stiffened, and her hopes of being the first rider to win both the time trial and the road race since Jeannie Longo in 1995 were over. It was scant consolation, but one of her attacks was the launch-pad for the Van der Breggen rocket ship. At the finish, she grimaced in pain. Orange jerseys stopped beside her and laid a gentle arm across their compatriot’s shoulder in commiseration; right here was not the place to celebrate - Van Vleuten was also missing the road race title from her burgeoning palmarès and she had harboured just as strong a desire to win as Van der Breggen.
Van Vleuten’s mother, Ria, stretched over the barriers and gave her daughter a hug. A small group of her fans and family stood forlornly, caught between watching the celebrations over by the podium and commiserating by the barriers. Later, one of the Dutch soigneurs came over and tried to help Van Vleuten remount her bike. Impossible: her knee had seized completely. While a wheelchair was called for, she passed a moment with an interview in which she reproached media for speculating whether she and Van der Breggen would ride for the team or for themselves. “There was a lot written but they should read it back to themselves,” Van Vleuten said. “We rode a perfect race. Only one can win and Anna won. We did well as the Netherlands, so I’m proud.” Later that evening a tibial eminence fracture was diagnosed, before she underwent an operation, leaving her leg in a brace for about a month.
The first time Van der Breggen had come through the finish line alone, the autumn leaves had rippled in the draft. Now, as fans filed out of the square, they lay still and doubled as the memorial petals for Van Vleuten’s 2018 road race hopes.