The Classics season is over, and the women’s professional road peloton prepares for the rest of the season. Kasia Niewiadoma (RaboLiv Women Cycling Team) and Annemiek van Vleuten (Orica-AIS) look back at their respective Spring campaigns.
The highlight of the Classics season for me was second place at the opening UCI Women’s WorldTour race, the Strade Bianche. Our team was strong and I knew the race suited me so I took my opportunity to try to escape. It worked out! That result really motivated me for the next races and I couldn’t wait to get together with the team again.
Another highlight was our team’s first UCI Women’s WorldTour victory with Anna van der Breggen’s win at La Flèche Wallonne Féminine. We were so happy about that. I came fourth which was also a good result, although to be honest, nobody really likes to finish in fourth place.
It’s not often I get to raise my hands in the air but at the 1.2 Ronde van Gelderland in the Netherlands I did! Winning that race was a really good moment and I made the most of it. We worked really well as a team to create situations and my attacks paid off.
I knew before the season started that I had worked well in training in Spain and that I had good power. But you never know until the races start what shape the other riders are in!
I’m in the lead of the youth ranking in the UCI Women’s WorldTour, but I am actually more proud of my sixth place in the Elite rankings, especially as I did not do all the races. I can hardly believe it when I see the names of the other riders around me. Everything is going so fast. Three years ago I would never have imagined it. Not long ago, Marianne Vos, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot and Anna were my idols and now they’re my team mates. It’s incredible.
I don’t have any regrets from the last few months, although sometimes I would like to go back to the start of a race with the knowledge and insights I gained during the race. If I had that power, I would definitely use it because things don’t always go to plan. You get to know the other riders’ strengths and weaknesses, and how they ride, and then someone surprises you. But that’s what cycling is about and it always gives us something to talk about at the end of the race.
I’d like to continue racing now but I will be taking a big break. It has to be done to prepare the rest of the season and be strong later in the year. I will go on an altitude training with the Polish National Federation in Sierra Nevada to prepare for my next major goals which include our National Championships and the Giro d’Italia Internazionale Femminile. I’m excited about that – it is a good race for me.
I feel quite sad that the Spring Classics are already over. It’s been really good fun and I would like them to continue! I surprised myself this spring. I have been in the front of every race and been able to play the game until the end. I have been in the top 10 of every UCI Women’s WorldTour race except La Flèche Wallonne Féminine. Of course, I would swap all those results for one victory, but I am pleased I have been so consistent. It has been really good fun to be in the mix up until the end of every race. I’m still getting to know my team, but the atmosphere is great and very relaxed.
My final spring race will be the 2.1 Grand Prix Elsy Jacobs in Luxembourg which starts with a prologue on April 29th, followed by two stages. I’ve raced a lot of events so I need to take a step back in order to get ready for the rest of the season. I feel quite fresh but it’s important not to do too much. I’m looking forward to my training camps in May in Tuscany, with my Orica-AIS team and also with my National Federation.
There are three or four riders from my team who will probably be competing at the Olympics, so our racing calendar is adapted to that. One of my major goals will be the Dutch National Championships at the end of June where I will compete in the time trial and road race. I want to improve on my time trialling, and my fourth place in the time trial of the EPZ Omloop van Borsele last Friday shows I’m on the way to that objective.
Another of my important goals is to share my enthusiasm for cycling with other people. That is why, since 2013, I have organised an annual clinic called “Professional for 24 Hours.”
This clinic gives people a chance to experience life as a pro rider. I organise this in partnership with a hotel where we stay the night, eat a real pre-race breakfast, and then ride over the course of the Women’s WorldTour Ronde van Drenthe. I organise tape for their handlebars with information about the kilometres and cobbled sections, I give them lactic testing on the hill and we also race, during which I am a domestique. It’s a lot of fun. I’ll never forget one year when I led out a 70-year-old man for the final sprint.
This year (April 25 and 26) we did the theory part of the programme, but when I woke up on Tuesday, my room was so light I knew it had snowed. This hardly ever happens in April in the Netherlands but these were not cycling conditions. We have postponed it until May 30 and 31.
What I think is cool, is that 10 of the people who signed up for this year’s course watched the actual race in Drenthe in March. It’s fantastic that they get so enthusiastic about women’s cycling!