Van Vleuten victorious in Rabobank spectacle

Annemiek Van Vleuten scored her first triumph in the Dutch national championships with a convincing win over last year's champion Marianne Vos in Kerkrade.

The 11 laps of the difficult course, which included four climbs each trip, shattered the field. While only teammates Van Vleuten and Vos were together until the finale, it was the former who proved the strongest after such a challenging race.

Lucinda Brand (AA Drink/Leontien.nl) was third, 3:45 behind and Amy Pieters (Skil-Argos) was fourth. The pair were part of the four-rider breakaway with Vos and Van Vleuten, but could not hold the pace of the Rabobank duo.

For Van Vleuten, the victory was an emotional one. The former World Cup winner had surgery last year to correct a kinked iliac artery, and is now confident that she has regained her full form ahead of her main goals: the Dutch championships, World Championships and Olympic Games.

Vos is also recovering from a broke collarbone sustained last month, but according to ANP she was not affected by the injury.

"I have suffered pain but that was because of the difficulty of the course. My collarbone has held up fine. Annemiek earned the victory, she was simply stronger in the finale."

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