Annemiek van Vleuten is already legendary for her ultra-intense training programmes.
In past years, Van Vleuten has recreated Chris Froome’s epic ‘empty the tank’ ride, has ridden 400km in a single day, and racked up 1,800km in just 10 days while training with the Mitchelton-Scott men’s squad.
This year the Dutch rider has made a major career change, having left Mitchelton-Scott after five seasons to take a leap into the unknown with Movistar.
But some things don’t change, as former world champion Van Vleuten has been demonstrating more of her unmatched work ethic during the Movistar training camp in Almería, Spain.
During the first few days of the camp, the 38-year-old joined one of the men’s team time trial units for a training session on a motor circuit, but she has now gone a step further and ridden more than 200km with Movistar’s strongest Classics riders.
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Van Vleuten has shared her data from the ride on Strava, titling the ride ‘Suffer to the max with the Classic group. Gracias chicos! Smashed but still alive’.
The stats behind the ride are pretty staggering, as even Van Vleuten admitted she was “out of her comfort zone.”
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But the reigning European champion took more than 50 QoM titles on Strava over the 219km ride, which included six hours of moving time and a total elevation of 2,967 metres.
The ride started on the coast at Retamar in Almería as the group of riders then headed east, taking in a combination of coastal roads and inland mountains.
Van Vleuten averaged an 163 watts for the duration of the ride, hitting a max power of 744w.
Van Vleuten rode alongside some formidable riders from the Movistar Classics line-up, including Ivan Garcia, Britain’s Gabriel Cullaigh and Imanol Erviti.
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Alex Ballinger is editor of BikeBiz magazine, the leading publication for the UK cycle industry, and is the former digital news editor for CyclingWeekly.com. After gaining experience in local newsrooms, national newspapers and in digital journalism, Alex found his calling in cycling, first as a reporter, then as news editor responsible for Cycling Weekly's online news output, and now as the editor of BikeBiz. Since pro cycling first captured his heart during the 2010 Tour de France (specifically the Contador-Schleck battle) Alex covered three Tours de France, multiple editions of the Tour of Britain, and the World Championships, while both writing and video presenting for Cycling Weekly. He also specialises in fitness writing, often throwing himself into the deep end to help readers improve their own power numbers. Away from the desk, Alex can be found racing time trials, riding BMX and mountain bikes, or exploring off-road on his gravel bike. He’s also an avid gamer, and can usually be found buried in an eclectic selection of books.
