Perhaps the most impressive thing about Annemiek van Vleuten’s record-breaking year was her age, turning 40 in her last race.
Or perhaps it was the fact that she won a breadth of different races: cobbled, lumpy Classics, sprints, mountainous, and stage races.
Or perhaps it was the apparent ease in which she claimed, arguably, the sport’s greatest ever single season result haul; Kasia Niewiadoma remarking that, “Annemiek is beyond our capacity.”
Whatever the answer is, no one could refute Niewiadoma’s words, and nor could they argue that van Vleuten didn’t repeatedly prove that age doesn’t stunt progression, but accelerates it. “I’m 39 years old, so for me it’s possible to train so many hours, but that’s not suddenly: that’s a process of many years doing five or 10% more, and…
