She is one of the best-ever riders in women’s cycling and now, starting 2026, Van der Breggen seems stronger and more ambitious.
Anna van der Breggen at the Team SD Worx – Protime training camp in Denia, Spain, on December 12, 2025 (Photo: Dario Belingheri/Getty Images)
Published January 11, 2026 04:42PM
Anna van der Breggen is in the second year of her comeback to the sport. With confidence boosted by her return, and with a feeling of progress being made, she is daring to dream of something huge: the third world championship win of her career.
“Last year it was a bit of a look at how it would go and if I could go well,” she said in recent days. “That was very good.”
“I now notice that the endurance and intensity are back. And I now know what to expect, so I’m already starting the season very differently than last year. Now it’s just see if I can do better.”
Van der Breggen is one of cycling’s best-ever riders, taking 63 wins across her career. These include the Olympic Games road race, two world championships, two editions of the Giro d’Italia Internazionale Femminile and a staggering seven straight wins in Flèche Wallonne.
However she retired from the sport back in September 2021. She was mentally and physically fatigued, and so her later decision to return three and half years after her retirement stunned many.
The 2025 season was her first back in the bunch and while she wasn’t as dominant as before, she racked up some very respectable results. She won a tactically-brilliant stage of the Vuelta España Femenina and finished third overall. She was also second on a stage of the Giro d’Italia Women and in Strade Bianche Donne, and third overall in the Setmana Ciclista Volta Femenina de la Comunitat Valenciana.
She then finished the season off on a high note, taking second to Marlen Reusser in the TT at the world championships and third in the road race at the Europeans.
Now it’s year two, and there are reasons for optimism about what is in store.
Dreaming of another rainbow
Van der Breggen and the rest of the SD Worx Protime team at the training camp in Denia, Spain, in December (Photo: Dario Belingheri/Getty Images)
Given Van der Breggen’s long break from the sport, it’s logical to believe she will be stronger in the months ahead.
It is often said that the previous season lays the foundation for the next: in that light, she could and should reach a higher level as a result.
She’s looking forward to getting going, and will knuckle down on February 5.
“My program is a bit the same as last year, only now I start a little earlier, in the UAE Tour,” she said, according to Sporza.
“Furthermore, I ride the Ardennes classics and there is also the Strade Bianche and the Trofeo Alfredo Binda. Those spring classics are my first big goals.”
And while she appears to play down her chances of winning the Tour de France Femmes, the SD Worx-Protime rider does say that she wants to be in strong form there and that the race will be a big goal.
There’s another contest though which might suit her better.
“I always think the world championship is a highlight of the season. Riding around in a rainbow jersey has been one of the best experiences in cycling for me,” she said.
Van der Breggen raced to victory in the worlds road race in both 2018 and 2020. With a hilly route on offer at the championships in Canada, she knows that her climbing abilities will be an asset.
“It’s a nice course, yes. You don’t have that every year. I always said that at a world championships you have to take your chance when the course is there.
“So I’m definitely very happy with the world championship course this year.”
Now 35 years of age, Van der Breggen has currently just one year left on her contract. That could change, of course, and perhaps even more so if she has a fresh new rainbow jersey across her shoulders.
Whatever happens, though, she’s excited about what lies ahead.
“I really enjoyed it,” she said of 2025. “It’s nice that I can still do this. It actually went super well.”
Happy, healthy and with the benefits of last year’s racing in her legs, look for even more from her in the months ahead.