Van Vleuten to debut rainbow jersey at the Giro dell'Emilia

Annemiek Van Vleuten (opens in new tab) (Mitchelton-Scott (opens in new tab)) will show off her world champion's rainbow jersey at the one-day Giro dell'Emilia (opens in new tab) in Italy on Saturday, October 5.

The 36-year-old will lead the Australian squad in their first participation at the race, one week after her thrilling solo ride to gold (opens in new tab) in Yorkshire. The rest of the team will then go on to race the GP Bruno Beghelli on Sunday. Van Vleuten is set to head to China for the Tour of Guangxi later in the month.

"It means a lot to me to race on Saturday at Emilia," said Van Vleuten.

"I am really looking forward to racing in the rainbow stripes and I am super proud to wear the colours for Mitchelton-Scott and what a great way to end the season like this."

The Italian one-day race, now onto its sixth edition, runs on the same day as the men's 106-year-old race and ends with the climb of San Luca, which hosted the opening stage of this year's Giro d'Italia. At just 99km long, the Giro dell'Emilia runs shorter than Van Vleuten's 104-kilometre solo ride in Yorkshire.

"The race is different from the men's where they have a lot more elevation, but we both finish on the same climb, San Luca," Van Vleuten explained. 

"I know it and I also saw it in the Giro d'Italia. I think it suits me and it is a great atmosphere, so I am super excited to race there."

For Van Vleuten, racing after the World Championships is a first. 

The newly-crowned world champion has tended to end her seasons with the Worlds – for various reasons – though the chance to race, and possibly win, in the rainbow stripes one week on from her Yorkshire success, proved too good to pass up. 

"I had some celebrations, but I don't think it has ruined my legs, and I trained again already because I still have some focus, so I am looking forward to going there and going for the win. Last year I finished on a low, I couldn't enjoy my world time trial title after my injury, so it makes this one even more special and I am really looking forward to racing in the jersey already.

"The team is strong, and [Amanda] Spratt is in incredible form and it will be nice to race with her again and then after we can enjoy it and celebrate all the results from the whole season with the whole team at a training camp."