Impression: Annemiek van Vleuten was the correct winner of the first Tour de France of a new generation

5 times back Annemiek van Vleuten was in problems. A large amount of trouble. Plagued by a stomach bug that intended she “couldn’t eat, could not consume,” the Giro Donne champion was on the brink of abandoning the very first women’s Tour de France in 33 a long time

She did not.

Nor, regardless of her soreness, did she reduce a meaningful quantity of time. The only motive, likely into the mountains, she experienced a handful of seconds to make up on the couple riders she may possibly have thought of rivals was for the reason that she concluded in the next (slash third) group on Phase 2.

Then, on the following working day, she all over again missing fewer than she should really have, considering she had scarcely ingested a calorie that she had been able to retain down.

The likes of SD Worx and Canyon Sram may perhaps be left wanting to know if they really should have accomplished much more to break her, to consider gain of her. All’s honest in enjoy and bicycle racing.

There will be people – a lot – who will have wished they experienced.

It’s all right if you ended up between them.

It would have been correctly in bounds, not damaged any “unwritten procedures,” if they had place her to the sword. Perhaps they must have. Perhaps it would have mattered very little if they had.

The stage of Grand Excursions is not just that you are the strongest rider, the a single most capable of enduring the physical loads necessary to sustain a very long assault across a array of terrains, but that you are the luckiest.

You have to be lucky to under no circumstances be in the wrong position at the improper time when a rider in entrance of you touches the wheel of a rider in entrance of them.

If everything Van Vleuten was fortunate that she was stricken early in the 7 days fairly than late.

There is no way she could have endured 3000m of climbing on the carbohydrate equal of vapours.

You also have to be over and above robust to do what she did.

There can be no question that Annemiek van Vleuten is the strongest of them all, and that is why she is completely the right winner of the very first women’s Tour de France in additional than a generation.

Had she succumbed to illness, and had Demi Vollering succeeded in her stead, it would not have meaningfully devalued the function. We would have lauded and admired a Vollering win every single bit as a great deal.

But we would have moderately puzzled “what if?”

It is really ideal that Annemiek van Vleuten has a Tour de France victory on her palmares. It really is proper that she crossed the line in yellow.

Van Vleuten is not Tadej Pogacar. She is not in danger of dominating phase race biking for a decade to occur.

She has presently scheduled her retirement, for the end of subsequent year. If we get just one a lot more Tour de France Femmes out of her we will have been privileged to see it.

We need to not want for significantly less.

This has been an iconic race and it was only correct that the to start with version of a new generation ought to be received by an legendary racer.

She herself appears to be on the lookout to the long run:

“I hope it is a massive get started and we can build this celebration even even bigger for the girls. It’s a milestone to earn the first of these.”

Far more levels. The Alps. The Pyrenees. Overseas grand departs. Time trials. More competitive races. More substantial audiences.

More difficult. Improved. Speedier. Much better.

That’s what lies in store for this race.

The Tour de France Femmes 2022, won by Annemiek van Vleuten, 39 years old, of Movistar and the Netherlands, was amazing. It is also just the beginning.