For Annemiek van Vleuten (Movistar Team), there are many lasts at the moment. Last week, she did her last-ever all-out training session, preparing for the Simac Ladies Tour prologue and the stage 2 time trial on her golden time trial bike, a special edition for her Olympic gold medal in the ITT.
On Tuesday, she started her last prologue in Ede, just down the road from her hometown Wageningen. On the short 2.4-kilometre course, Van Vleuten finished in 12th place, nine seconds behind stage winner Charlotte Kool (Team DSM-Firmenich).
"Such an explosive prologue isn't quite my thing, and I had expected that one of the sprinters would win here. My prologue went well, and I especially enjoyed the many people who thanked me for my career. It was nice to be able to look around a little and enjoy myself before the start," Van Vleuten wrote on her website, saying that she had met her expectations for the prologue and enjoyed being at a race without the pressure to perform that accompanied her almost continuously throughout her career.
"I am happy that I decided to do two races in a relaxed mode to prepare for my goodbye. It feels good that I could structure my farewell myself with these last races. It wasn't my body that told me that I had to stop," she continued, happy to bow out of the sport on her own terms.
Probably trying to entice Van Vleuten to line up at their race, the Simac Ladies Tour organisers had put together a course that featured her home roads – even before they knew their race would be her final curtain.
"It's very nice to be close to home with the prologue in Ede and the final stage in my training area in Arnhem. I reconned the Arnhem stage yesterday [Monday, ed.]. I know the roads like the back of my hand, but I wanted to look at them with race eyes. And the Limburg stage on Saturday is a nice one too," the 40-year-old said that she liked the parcours.
Even though Van Vleuten made the point that she wasn't targeting the overall victory, the Tour of Scandinavia showed that she can still win races even without targeting them specifically. She promised that she would try to deliver attacking racing in her final race and see where that got her.
"The two stages on the weekend have all the ingredients for a good race. That is what I like and why I am here. All my career I have been attacking, and now I want to do the same to finish my career in style. That is my goal this week. I'm not going for the GC as such, I want to enjoy myself without any stress," said Van Vleuten.
