Annemiek van Vleuten has lately been injured and won’t compete on the upcoming UCI Gravel World Championships, held on Saturday in Veneto, Italy. The Dutch rider confirmed that she has a foot damage that can stop her from becoming a member of the nationwide workforce for the elite ladies’s 140km race.
“I can’t take part resulting from a foot damage. I feel that is a disgrace as a result of it appeared like a pleasant area to do a gravel race,” Van Vleuten mentioned in a report on Wielerflits.
Van Vleuten obtained a wildcard invitation to compete on the Gravel World Championships and was set to hitch a wildcard roster that included Demi Vollering, Lorena Wiebes, Riejanne Markus, Femke Markus, Yara Kastelijn, Tessa Neefjes, and Noä Jansen. The Dutch roster launched by the UCI had 9 different riders, together with Pauliena Rooijakkers a WorldTour rider with Gravel World Collection victories at Gravel One Fifty and Houffa Gravel.
Van Vleuten acknowledged beforehand that she meant to compete within the Gravel World Championships for enjoyable and that she had not educated particularly for the occasion.
“I’ve no ambitions in a gravel profession, so I feel I’ll finish it right here,” Van Vleuten advised AD final week. “I will experience this in my retirement. I am not ready for it and I am not going to coach for it. I will take part and have a pleasant picture with Alejandro Valverde.”
Van Vleuten has lately retired from a sparking 16-year street racing profession and competed in her final race on the Simac Women Tour in September. She is a multiple-time world champion – twice within the street race and twice within the time trial – and has been a staple throughout the Spring Classics and Grand Excursions.
She got here into her ultimate season this 12 months with an formidable objective of successful all three Grand Excursions, and whereas she succeeded at La Vuelta Femenina and the Giro d’Italia Donne, she was disillusioned to have completed simply off the rostrum in fourth place on the Tour de France Femmes.
The elite ladies’s race on the Gravel World Championships takes place on a 140km route on Saturday, October 7, the day earlier than Van Vleuten’s forty first birthday. The elite males’s race follows on Sunday throughout 169km.