![\"Anna](\"https:\/\/velo.outsideonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/GettyImages-2254467497.jpg\")
<\/p>\nShe is one of the best-ever riders in women\u2019s cycling and now, starting 2026, Van der Breggen seems stronger and more ambitious. <\/p>\n
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Anna van der Breggen at the Team SD Worx – Protime training camp in Denia, Spain, on December 12, 2025 (Photo: Dario Belingheri\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Published January 11, 2026 04:42PM<\/p>\n
Anna van der Breggen<\/a> 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<\/a> win of her career.<\/p>\n \u201cLast year it was a bit of a look at how it would go and if I could go well,\u201d she said in recent days. \u201cThat was very good.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI now notice that the endurance and intensity are back. And I now know what to expect, so I\u2019m already starting the season very differently than last year. Now it\u2019s just see if I can do better.\u201d<\/p>\n Van der Breggen is one of cycling\u2019s 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\u2019Italia Internazionale Femminile and a staggering seven straight wins in Fl\u00e8che Wallonne.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n The 2025 season was her first back in the bunch and while she wasn\u2019t as dominant as before, she racked up some very respectable results. She won a tactically-brilliant stage of the Vuelta Espa\u00f1a Femenina and finished third overall. She was also second on a stage of the Giro d\u2019Italia Women and in Strade Bianche Donne, and third overall in the Setmana Ciclista Volta Femenina de la Comunitat Valenciana.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Now it\u2019s year two, and there are reasons for optimism about what is in store.<\/p>\n Dreaming of another rainbow Given Van der Breggen\u2019s long break from the sport, it\u2019s logical to believe she will be stronger in the months ahead.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n She\u2019s looking forward to getting going, and will knuckle down on February 5.<\/p>\n \u201cMy program is a bit the same as last year, only now I start a little earlier, in the UAE Tour,\u201d she said, according to Sporza<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cFurthermore, 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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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)<\/p>\n