{"id":43731,"date":"2025-08-04T03:57:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-04T03:57:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/43731\/"},"modified":"2025-08-04T03:57:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-04T03:57:10","slug":"shes-been-out-of-the-sport-for-three-years-thats-always-going-to-catch-up-with-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/43731\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cShe\u2019s been out of the sport for three years. That\u2019s always going to catch up with you&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Van der Breggen ultimately lost more time than any of her fellow GC hopefuls, unable to match the blistering pace set by <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclinguptodate.com\/pauline-ferrand-prevot\" title=\"Pauline Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Pauline Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot<\/a> and her pursuers. But Van Vleuten, never one to sugarcoat the demands of elite racing, pointed to a clear reason behind the performance dip. \u201cShe\u2019s been out of the sport for three years,\u201d Van Vleuten said matter-of-factly. \u201cThat\u2019s always going to catch up with you during a stage race. Your body just doesn\u2019t recover as well when it hasn\u2019t been through those repeated efforts for a few seasons.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Van der Breggen, a former Olympic and World Champion, retired from professional racing at the end of 2021 and only returned to competition this season. While her comeback has been met with both fanfare and expectation, Van Vleuten was quick to remind viewers that rebuilding top-end form isn\u2019t something you can rush. \u201cThat recovery capacity \u2013 that endurance \u2013 it\u2019s something you only get from laying down a base and doing long blocks of back-to-back training,\u201d she said. \u201cShe\u2019s still in the middle of catching up on that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Despite the setbacks, Van Vleuten expressed full confidence that Van der Breggen would return to a much stronger level in 2026. \u201cIt\u2019s just a matter of time,\u201d she said. \u201cBy next year, I think we\u2019ll see a completely different Anna \u2013 she\u2019ll have erased most of the deficit and be much further along. This year is all about rebuilding. What comes next will be far more telling.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With Van der Breggen now out of GC contention, attention turns to her role in supporting teammates like <a href=\"https:\/\/cyclinguptodate.com\/lorena-wiebes\" title=\"Lorena Wiebes\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Lorena Wiebes<\/a> \u2013 a role she\u2019s already fulfilled with quiet effectiveness earlier in the race.<\/p>\n<p>Whether she returns to full leadership in future editions remains to be seen. But if Van Vleuten\u2019s prediction is right, Van der Breggen\u2019s comeback story may still have its defining chapters ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Van der Breggen ultimately lost more time than any of her fellow GC hopefuls, unable to match the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43732,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[49,48,635,82],"class_list":["post-43731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}