Van Vleuten Victorious

Time trial world champion van Vleuten finished the 18.6km course in 24:00 with an amazing average speed of 46.500 km/h.

Starting the day with an 18 second lead over closest rival Lucinda Brand (Sunweb), van Vleuten was the favourite.

Brand suffered a fall in the final stage, losing time and her place on the podium.

Australian teammate Amanda Spratt finished strongly in the time trial ride, finishing in fifth place on the stage and sixth overall in the GC.

Lauren Kitchen (FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope) and Chloe Hosking (Alé Cipollini) finished the GC in 25th and 43rd respectively.

 

A post shared by Annemiek van Vleuten (@annemiekvanvleuten) on Sep 2, 2018 at 1:18pm PDT

"It is awesome to win, you are always a bit nervous for a time trial but I knew my shape was good and it is really nice to end this tour like this," van Vleuten said.

"For me it is also the last preparation for the world championships and I wanted to do everything the same going into the world championships, so it is really nice to win this tour and with a time trial.

"It was a little bit technical today, I saw an ambulance on one of the corners on the course, that scared me a bit so I took it very easy also with the general classification in mind.

"Lucinda Brand crashed on a corner so I took it a bit more easy on the corner but on the straight parts I was really full gas and had good legs just like the prologue and the first stage. I think on the straight parts I had a lot of power."

The win also sees van Vleuten climb to the top of the World rankings over Marianne Vos (2nd) and Anna van der Breggen (3rd). Spratt is the highest placed Australian in 5th position.

 

I still have a lot to learn and work on when it comes to timetrials but when your teammate is the World Champion and is so generous with her knowledge you have to take every opportunity to be like a sponge and soak it all in. Great final stage at Holland Ladies Tour for us- Vleuty absolutely dominated taking a convincing win to seal the overall victory 💃🏻🎉. I was really happy with my ride- 10th in the ITT and 6th on GC. Great week with the whole team here in Holland 😊 • • • • #blt2018 #blt18 #boelsladiestour #holland #uciwwt #womenscycling #timetrial #lastday 📸 @gettyimages

A post shared by Amanda Spratt (@amandaspratt87) on Sep 2, 2018 at 10:28am PDT

Boels Ladies Tour stage 6 TT result:
1. Annemiek van Vleuten (Mitchelton-SCOTT) 24:00
2. Ellen van Dijk (Sunweb) +0:22
3. Anna van der Breggen (Boels-Dolmans) +0:32

Final general classification:
1. Annemiek van Vleuten (Mitchelton-SCOTT) 14:34
2. Ellen van Dijk (Sunweb) +0:52
3. Anna van der Breggen (Boels-Dolmans) +1:05

Next up is the Madrid Challenge by La Vuelta on 15-16 of September followed by the final event of the year, the Tour of Guangxi Women's World Tour (October 21st).