Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar Team): “I went all out today”

May 6 ^th 2023 - 17:28 [GMT + 2]

We know this area really well and the moment when we attacked was a super good one. After we made our plan, some girls stopped for a nature break. I felt a bit shit for them, but they stopped in the wrong moment. You should never stop while in an open road with headwinds and crosswinds coming up. We followed our plan and it turned out to be a super good move. It was a great team effort and I’m super proud of my team. Paula Patino and Liane Lippert set it up for me to attack at the bottom of the first climb and off I went on my own to finish it off. Then there were some bonus seconds at the intermediate sprint and I really wanted them, so I sprinted and found myself alone. Only Gaia Realini came across and from then on I did a solo time trial to the finish. I think in the group behind me Marlen Reusser came together with Demi (Vollering), so it was one person against a group. Of course, they need to attack me now and I don’t need to attack. We can only think about tomorrow now, it will be a super hard day. I went all out today, so I want to recover.