Annemiek van Vleuten (Mitchelton-Scott) has dominated the re-start of the 2020 Women’s Elite season with four wins and leads the UCI rankings.
Two wins came from the Vuelta Navarra. In the first race, 2nd Emakumeen Nafarroako Klasikoa (1.1), 118 km from Pamplona to Lekunberri, she took a solo win 18 seconds ahead of Mavi Garcia (Alé BTC Ljubljana) with Anna van der Breggen (Boels – Dolmans Cycling Team) third.
Photo: vueltanavarra.com
Win number two came at the second of the two-race Navarran series, the 2nd Clasica Femenina Navarra (1.1), 122.9 km Pamplona to Pamplona. This time the win was even more emphatic with van Vleuten soloing 1’14” ahead of Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo Women) with the peloton led in by Maria Giulia Confalonieri (Ceratizit-WNT Pro Cycling) at 2’06”.
The Dutch runner Van Vleuten is crowned again in Navarra
The passage of the cycling world champion through Navarra has been tremendous. The Dutch rider has won the two classic UCI World Tour for women that have been held in the Autonomous Community. Annemiek Van Vleuten (Mitchelton-Scott) won yesterday with authority in Lekunberri and today she did the same in Pamplona, on a 122.9 kilometer stage with the beginning and end in the Navarran capital. The current world champion has once again entered the finish line alone, this time ahead of the Italians, Elisa Longo (Trek-Segafredo), second at 1’14 ”, and Maria Giulia Confalonieri (Cera Tizit-WNT) , third, at 2’06 ”.
The day began with 24 teams in the race and a peloton made up of 143 runners. With several walls of great unevenness and the height of El Perdón near the finish line, a restless day was expected. And so it has been. Nervous stage, with a lot of heat and wind and some runners who were flying. The average speed of the first hour of the race was 40 kilometers. The steep slopes, the walls and the wind have been breaking the group over the kilometers. The race has been broken from the wall of Tirapu. Ane Santesteban was the first to leave until Elisa Longo caught up with her.
With the Italian runner ahead, Van Vleuten jumped out of the pack and both, after a beautiful passage through the cobbled slopes of Artajona, continued paired. It was at kilometer 100 when the world champion took an energetic blow to leave alone on the way to Pamplona. The distances were increasing each time and a new victory for Van Vleuten was a matter of time. With impeccable authority, she has crossed the finish line in Pamplona alone, thus achieving her second consecutive victory and crowning herself in Navarra as what she is, the cycling world champion.