The drivers were already on the road for nearly four and a half hours. They have covered more than 160 kilometers, 2433 meters up and down. The asphalt under their tires in Wollongong, Australia, is so wet after the rain that the colors of their shirts are reflected in it. No one turned away decisively. That is why the top nine drivers prepared for the sprint no later than a kilometer before the finish line. Among them is the Swiss Elise Chabe.
Everyone looked around, everyone positioned themselves, the final preparations for the match for the world road racing title were underway, seconds were ticking before everyone was gone. Then someone passed over everyone who couldn’t get out of the saddle at all because she was riding with a broken elbow: Animek van Vleuten, 39, a Dutchwoman and one of the greatest cyclists in history.
With seven hundred yards left, she had outgrown them all. Before their eyes the world title, left and right only the billboards on which the hands of spectators beat the soundtrack of this flight. I’ve been out of the saddle twice after all, only for a few kicks, only for the last push, always the pain in the elbow. “It was hell,” she says.
Marilyn Rosser attack
Van Vleuten won the road race title for the second time after 2019. In 2021 she won the gold medal in the time test and the silver medal on the road at the Olympic Games in Tokyo. This year she won the Vuelta, Giro and Tour de France races. There are also two World Championship titles in time trials. But due to circumstances, and because of that broken right elbow, Wollongong’s world title is one of her greatest victories.
Van Vleuten was injured three days before the road race in the mixed team trial. She fell a few meters from the start and hit a gang. Their Dutch team was among the candidates. Instead, Switzerland won the title, with Elise Schabe, Marilyn Rosser and others. The two also had high hopes for the road race. Reusser especially when she launched an attack twelve kilometers from the end. But the field soon rejected them. Shabi was ninth and Rosser thirteenth.
Early Sunday morning, the men will be vying for the title. The Women’s World Cup is over. Van Vleuten now treats her elbow. (Sa)
“Internet nerd. Avid student. Zombie guru. Tv enthusiast. Coffee advocate. Social media expert. Music geek. Professional food maven. Thinker. Troublemaker.”
More Stories
Tests against Germany and Canada in preparation for the World Cup
Boris Becker's insolvency proceedings in Great Britain have ended
Marco Odermatt is happy to have Marcel Hirscher back