Anna van der Breggen (SD Worx) aims to continue an exceptional pre-retirement year zeroing in winning a fourth overall title at the Giro d'Italia Donne from July 2-11 before travelling to Tokyo to defend her gold medal at the Olympic Games on July 25.
“I’m really focused for this year’s edition of the Giro d’Italia Donne and looking forward to work together as a team through those 10 stages. The combination of this stage schedule needs to make us work as a team, of which I don’t have any doubts," Van der Breggen said.
"It will be my last race as a preparation for the Olympic Games and I need this 'race mode' to stay focused and alert. But first I’ll do my best to hopefully win a fourth edition of this beautiful race," she said.
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This year’s Giro d'Italia Donne will travel through the mountainous northern regions of Italy that include Piemonte, Lombardia, Liguria, Veneto, and Friuli Venezia Giulia.
The race will begin on July 2 with a team time trial in Fossano to Cuneo, include an uphill time trial on stage 4, and two mountaintop finishes on stage 2 at Prato Nevoso and stage 9 at Monte Matajur on the penultimate stage, before concluding in Cormons on July 11.
Van der Breggen has stated earlier that she would use the Giro d'Italia Donne as preparation for the Olympic Games in Tokyo, but that she would also like to win a fourth title. She won titles in 2015, 2017 and 2020.
Two-time winner Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar) and last year's runner-up Kasia Niewiadoma (Canyon-SRAM) have opted to skip the 10-day race in favour of more specific training ahead of the Olympic Games.
SD Worx line up with a powerful team that also includes GC contenders in Demi Vollering and Ashleigh Moolman-Pasio, along with Chantal van den Broek-Blaak, Elena Cecchini, and Niamh Fisher-Black.
“This edition of the Giro d’Italia Donne will be a hard one, because of the different types of stages. With a TTT, ITT and 2 stages with an uphill finish, of which one is already in stage 2, we need to focus every day as big time differences in the GC can occur very quick. Our line-up definitely contains some riders who are able to win this race," said team director Danny Stam.
