Champion rider Annemiek van Vleuten took the lead in the Tour of France on the day before the last and finally took an overwhelming victory.
Annemiek van Vleuten proved himself to be the best climber in this year’s Tour de France as he pedaled to his second stage win and overall Tour victory.
The Dutchman was not stopped even by problems with the bike during the 123.5 km mountain stage from Lure to La Super Planche des Belles Filles. The number one rider of the Movistar team had to change his bike no less than three times during the trip.
Many teams also tried to drop van Vleuten from the fight for victory, but their attacks did not work and van Vleuten was able to pedal away from the others on the last climb.
The Dutch got to celebrate in the final stage, as Van Vleuten crossed the finish line 30 seconds ahead of the SD Worx team, who came second in the stage and in the overall race Demi Vollering. Polish pedal from the Canyuon-SRAM team Katarzyna Niewiadoma was third overall. In the overall results, Vollering lost to van Vleuten by 3 minutes and 48 seconds, Niewiadoma by 6 minutes and 35 seconds.
– This is the fulfillment of my dreams. This was not an easy stage and it has not been an easy week. It’s been a really big roller coaster for me, van Vleuten said.
He took the overall lead in the penultimate stage as he pedaled to an overwhelming victory on a grueling mountain stage.
– Now I can finally enjoy this. Yesterday was an amazing day, but I still wanted to keep my focus and not celebrate. Now I can finally eat ice cream and pizza.
This was the first time in the 33-year history of the Tour de France Femmes that women were able to ride the same multi-day stage race as the men.
– I am super proud to be the first female winner of the Tour de France – that is, this new version, van Vleuten said.
– Hopefully this is a great start, and we can make this event even bigger.
In his career, the 39-year-old van Vleuten has won, among other things, the Olympic time trial gold and two world championships, as well as the road racing world championship and numerous prestigious one-day and multi-day stage races.
Van Vleuten has also experienced adversity in his long career. Among other things, at the Rio Olympic Games, he crashed horribly, and at the Tokyo Olympics, he thought he had won the Olympic gold in road cycling and fancied it wildly. He did not know that Austria Anna Kiesenhofer had already reached the finish line earlier. In the time trial, van Vleuten finally got the Olympic gold he wanted so much.