Annemiek van Vleuten on a women’s Tour de France, why she’s joined Movistar, and her Olympic dream
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Updated 03/09/2020 at 16:48 GMT
In a fascinating interview Annemiek van Vleuten opened up to Eurosport’s Orla Chennaoui about the bright future for women’s cycling, why the news of a women’s Tour de France has come at exactly the right time, the reasoning behind her decision to leave Mitchelton-Scott for Movistar, and much more.
Annemiek Van Vleuten of The Netherlands and Team Mitchelton - Scott
Image credit: Getty Images
Annemiek van Vleuten is the dominant force in women’s cycling, but it isn’t just her performances in the saddle that make the 37-year-old such an impressive figurehead for the sport.
The reigning European and World Champion has pushed hard for improvements to the infrastructure of professional women’s cycling and has a clear vision for the future of the sport, and in a comprehensive interview with Eurosport’s Orla Chennaoui for The Breakaway she has opened up a number of important issues, both for herself and the sport in general.
With the organisers of the Tour de France, ASO, recently announcing that a ten-day women’s Tour will be introduced from 2022, Van Vleuten says the news is exciting but not the be-all-and-end-all for the sport.
“I was very happy to hear the news,” she told Orla Chennaoui. “The Tour de France for women is not the holy grail for women’s cycling, but I’m super happy about it. I think it’s also a good move that they’ve decided to start it on the last day of the men, when the men finish, that’s a really good idea to have it like continuing.
I think a women’s Tour would give our sport a platform that it deserves. In France we don’t have any big stage races anymore, but I think a Tour de France is exciting for women. And I’m happy that I’ll be continuing to 2022 and I’ll be able to race there.
“I think it’s the right time to introduce it too, the right time to step it up. We see more and more girls get professional, and more and more girls being paid as professionals, so this will be a big step alongside the women’s Tour that’s now there, which says that girls need to get paid. That was the highest for me for the wish list, that the whole women’s peloton will be full-time professional, and this will be a super boost for that."
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“I think also to start with a ten-day Tour de France and not a three week one is a good step," Van Vleuten added. "Maybe we can make it longer in future years, but for now ten days is awesome.
“I don’t think the sport is ready for three weeks at the moment. I think ten days is really exciting, really good and really challenging, but a decade ago I didn’t expect to be in a women’s peloton like this at a professional level, so who knows how far it can go.”
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Part of the discussion around the future of cycling has focused around the issue of equal pay, a concept that has been approached in a variety of ways in different sports. However, Van Vleuten belies that rather than concentrating on equal pay, the best actionable solution for women’s cycling is to introduce a minimum full-time wage for World Tour riders in order to raise the standard across the board.
"Women’s cycling is on the up. Even with the covid period I was quite surprised that I heard news about new teams starting. It sounds like women’s cycling is so on the way up that even covid is not letting us down. I think also we’ve had super-exciting races, and all of our races apart from the Spanish ones were on television, so I think that’s a really good boost this year.
"We’ve talked a little bit about the wages, and there’s been a lot of talk about equal wages, but that’s not my point.
My point is that for every girl in the peloton I want a minimum wage organised, so let’s make it more equal, and that will give it the biggest boost I think to give everyone a chance to be full-time professional, that’s really high on my wish list.
"Let’s forget about comparing the men to the women, that’s not so interesting, let’s focus on giving everyone a good chance."
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Van Vleuten's palmares makes for impressive reading, with the defending World Champion winning six races so far in the disrupted 2020 season, including the European Road race, Omloop het Nieuwsblad and Strade Bianche.
But perhaps the most significant development of the year so far for the 37-year-old has been the news that she will be leaving Mitchelton-Scott after five hugely successful years with the team and joining Movistar for at least the next two seasons.
And the Dutchwoman says that challenging herself to improve is one of the reasons why she decided to make the move.
"For me it’s about continuously looking at where I can improve, although over the years the things I can improve are getting smaller. But I’m still hungry and I still see small details that I can improve.
"Signing with a new team is a new challenge, and it will give me new energy. After five great years with Mitchelton-Scott it will be really hard to say goodbye because I really like it there, but I hope my new team will give me new energy… and also a new bike to ride on. They are quite good on that and they have a plan with me to make me even faster on my bike, so it’s still those small details that make me hungry."
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What lies ahead for the rider who wins almost every race she enters? Defending her World Championship title is the priority she says, but there will be plenty of other titles to follow in the coming years if her form remains at such an extraordinary level.
"I was very happy to hear that the Worlds are being organised on a similar course. It’s my biggest goal for this Autumn together with the Giro Rosa, so I can’t wait to see the course and race there.
The big target next year is that hopefully we’ll have the Tokyo Olympic Games, but I don’t want to reduce next year to only about the Olympics. I've never won Fleche-Wallone for example, I’d love to win Flanders again, but happy that I can start that with my new team because we still have that on the calendar so hopefully I can go for that.
Possibly the most interesting element of the fascinating interview was Van Vleuten's clear desire to stay at the top of her sport. At the age of 37 and with a mountain of career wins already to her name you could forgive her for wanting to hang up the cleats. But, in worrying news for her rivals, there is no sign of her retiring any time soon.
"People talk sometimes about my age, but I’m a little bit tired of that because I don’t think about stopping yet... I think about improving myself," she concludes.
"My target is not to keep winning. Really my target is to keep on improving myself and then the winning is the bonus."
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