Annemiek van Vleuten (the Netherlands) and Kasia Niewiadoma (Poland) are on the point of departure for Rio 2016. It is the Dutch athlete’s second Olympics after London 2012, while Kasia Niewiadoma embarks on the Olympic adventure for the first time.
I am ready. That is for sure. I feel strong and my last races have gone very well so that has given me a lot of confidence. We are flying out on July 31st and it’s a big honour to be part of the Dutch team. I’m really excited.
The rest of my altitude training camp in Trepalle, Italy, the first two weeks of July went really well. It’s a super good place for training and the people are so nice. I was nearly crying when it was time to leave.
The day after I drove down, was the first day of the Internationale Thüringen Rundfahrt der Frauen (July 15-21), a seven-stage road race in Germany. We were going for stages with my team, Orica-AIS, and I was really surprised at how I was riding. Usually, immediately after a hard training block, you have a few low days but it wasn’t the case. I was able to attack on the climbs and finished fourth overall, with two third places in stage five and six, as well as second place in the time trial.
Now I’m back home but it’s not all that restful. I have so much to organise for Rio, getting ready, preparing the bikes, packing… As far as training this week, I am letting the altitude do its work! The last week, I have been training less but with intensity, including two criterium races in the Netherlands on Monday and Wednesday. I won the Daags na de Tour Boxmeer and although it is not a hugely important event for me, it is good for confidence.
I spent Thursday and Friday in Papendal with the Dutch team that is going to Rio. This is important to do a little bit of training together, have a technical meeting and discuss team tactics. It is very good for the team spirit.
Apart from that I am trying to sleep, eat, train and not undertake too many official engagements. I am looking forward to travelling to Rio this weekend with the other Dutch cyclists. We will have a week to acclimatise. There are just over 200 Dutch athletes in total and we are all staying together in the same building in the Olympic Village. That is so much fun. In London it was great! Everything takes longer in the Olympic village because there is security and lots of people, but I don’t mind. I’m not going to get frustrated or angry with things that are out of my control. I will just take the good things and enjoy them.
Obviously I won’t watch any other sports before my race on August 7th, but I am flying home on the 12th so I hope to see something. It’s hard to think about “after” because, as I said, everything at the moment is 100% focused on Rio.
In just over a week I’ll be racing at the Olympic Games! It’s totally crazy!! I am especially looking forward to the road race. I have thought about this day for such a long time and I cannot wait to make my dream come true.
I’m not nervous. I have great team mates from Rabo and the Polish Federation who have helped me understand this race and advised me not to build it up into something too big in my mind. Otherwise I would go crazy.
I think the road race means more to me than the time trial, but for both events, my goal is to do my best and be sure afterwards that I could not have done anything more.
My last race before Rio was La Course by Le Tour de France, in Paris. I wanted to compete to get some speed and race feeling in my legs before leaving for Rio. I so enjoyed the race. It was really fast from the start and I tried to be active as much as possible. Unfortunately, on the last lap I was involved in a crash and was not able to help my teammates in the final.
But I had an amazing feeling afterwards. There were so many people cheering and supporting us along the course. It is great promotion for women’s cycling.
Another fantastic race for women is the Tour de Pologne Women. It was the first time that they organised the women’s race and I would have loved to ride it. It would be such an opportunity to race a three-day stage race in my home country. Czeslaw Lang is planning to make it even bigger next year with more stages and television coverage. That is amazing. I was disappointed not to be able to race this year because of my Olympic preparation but next year…. Definitely!
I am writing this from Livigno, in Italy, where I am on an altitude training camp with the Polish Federation. I came here after the Giro d’Italia Internazionale Femminile, which is 10 stages and finished on July 10th. That was a good race for me and I felt that all the work I had done before was paying off. I just had one bad day, the Mortirolo stage, which destroyed my dreams of winning the Giro! But I knew I was in good shape and so I didn’t dwell on the bad day. The rest of the race went really well.
I am in Livigno until leaving for Rio on August 3rd so it is a really long period away from home. After Rio I fly to Poland to see my crazy family again!