Anna van der Breggen began the UCI Road World Championships in Richmond, Virginia with a bronze medal in the team time trial with Rabo-Liv, then added a silver to her haul in the individual time trial. The Giro Donne and Flèche Wallonne winner is aiming for one better in the elite women's road race on Saturday. Cyclingnews sat down with the Dutch rider to talk about last year's Worlds disappointment, racing in the shadow of Marianne Vos and what to expect on Saturday.
Cyclingnews: You were only a couple seconds off the gold medal in the time trial. Did that give you confidence for Saturday's road race?
Anna van der Breggen: It does, it says something about my shape at the moment, but a road race and time trial are very different races. I'm also a bit nervous for it. It's an important race and we want to do well. It's difficult because we need a hard race, so we have to find a way to do that. I think there are lots of teams who need a hard race. I think if you look at the finish, it's really something for Lizzie Armitstead, so all of the other teams need a hard race otherwise it will be a sprint for her. So I think we need to ride smart, see how it goes, and make it a hard race but not only counting on our team.
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CN: In addition to Lizzie Armitstead, who else do you think could do well here, other than yourself?
AvdB: It's difficult to say because it's a hard lap, but there needs to be a race otherwise I think there's a lot of time to come back. You have Jolien d'Hoore, Pauline Ferrand Prevot, of course. I think the Polish federation will be here with a strong team, especially for Kasia [Pawlowska]. I think that the most dangerous ones you can never allow [up the road] - for instance Emma [Johansson] is always good. A lot of more girls.
CN: Last year you missed out on the time trial and road race entirely...
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