WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS ROAD RACE
28.09.19
4Van Vleuten’s victory in the women’s road race at the World Championships will go down as one of the greatest lone breaks in the history of cycling. Over 100km from the finish, she attacked on the Lofthouse climb, and surely the plan was to have at least some company for the remainder of the race. Yet nobody could follow, and the damage done by her attack was so profound that only eight riders could stay within a minute of her over the top, and the rest of the bunch were nowhere.
Even then, a less confident rider might have awaited reinforcements, or at least steadied her effort, in the expectation that eight working together would be faster than her solo effort. However, Van Vleuten pressed ahead, and the group behind dithered, their pursuit faltering under the fractious politics at play.
It was a lesson in how cycling works. That group of eight comprised seven different nations, with only Italy having two riders, so nobody wanted to pull more than anybody else. Van Vleuten’s teammate Van der Breggen, the reigning champion, sat steadfastly at the back, dissuading the chase – after all, if the other seven riders had found common cause in catching Van Vleuten, the next thing to happen would be an attack from the freshlegged Van der Breggen. In the end, the group, faced with the choice of a Dutch winner or a Dutch winner, preferred to take their chances on Van Vleuten coming back.
Van Vleuten is a double world time trial champion, the strongest climber in the women’s peloton, and a specialist in lone breaks – as the race went on, it became clear she was not going to be brought back. The eight riders broke up under the pressure of the finishing circuits, leaving Van der Breggen to ride into second, and Van Vleuten and Van der Breggen’s Dutch team-mate Vos won the sprint from what was left of the peloton for sixth. The greatest individual ride of 2019 was a consummate team effort.