MADRID, 21 Feb. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Dutch cyclist Annemiek van Vleuten, of the Movistar Team, was proclaimed the winner for the second consecutive year of the Setmana Ciclista Valenciana, the first round of the UCI international calendar.
Van Vleuten, current Olympic time trial champion, took on the leader’s jersey this Saturday by winning the ‘queen’ stage of the round and with her victory reaches 87 victories in UCI events, 14 of them with the colors of the Spanish team , which already accumulates, under its different names, 998 in total.
“You see the team improve more and more compared to last year. Several of the teammates who were here were defending the jersey for the first time, and you see that they gain experience, that others also came from doing that job for several days when they won in Ardèche last year, which is a similar race. It’s nice to see that the team is also doing well in a facet such as defending a lead and they know how to handle themselves”, celebrated the Dutchwoman in statements provided by her team.
Van Vleuten acknowledged his surprise at his performance after only four and a half months of his hard fall in Roubaix and leaving “the crutches behind in mid-December”. “It’s nice to start the season like this. It also takes a lot of pressure off me to see that the team and myself are back in such good shape. And being a Spanish race, it’s a nice thing for the team,” he stressed.
In addition, he wanted to remember Gary Baños, a team assistant who died a year ago, with a drawing on one of his arms, and his compatriot and “friend” Amy Pieters, who is still in hospital after his serious accident at the end of the year and of which he remembers “a lot”. “I wanted to keep them in mind and dedicate this jersey and this win to them,” she added.