'Bigger than winning Olympic gold' - Annemiek van Vleuten on life after the peloton

Annemiek van Vleuten says becoming a mother has surpassed even winning Olympic gold, the former world champion opening up on life after cycling in an appearance on the Domestique Hotseat.

Van Vleuten, who retired at the end of 2023, after a career that saw her win the Tour de France, Giro Donne, Vuelta, and World Championships, amongst others, revealed that her son Alex was born six months ago. 

Asked to put the experience alongside the achievements of a career that placed her among the greatest cyclists of all time, she did not hesitate. "I would say it's bigger than winning the Olympic gold, having a child of your own," said Van Vleuten on the Domestique Hotseat.

Many athletes struggle with the transition out of professional sport, but Van Vleuten says she has found the opposite to be true, quickly filling her days with broadcasting, mentoring and writing since hanging up her race wheels.

"I'm still finding the black hole," she told the Domestique Hotseat. "I didn't find it yet. I see a lot of opportunities. I'm happy that I have time to enjoy Alex."

Central to that sense of purpose is a new role as a commentator with Eurosport, which Van Vleuten has taken on alongside her existing work with Dutch television. She will be on commentary duty for this Sunday's Tour of Flanders. a race she won in 2011 and 2020, as well as select men's Giro d'Italia stages, "super exciting to do also some men's races," she said. "I like it, I follow it also."

Away from the commentary box, Van Vleuten has also taken on a mentoring role with Fenix-Premier Tech. She says the position has been shaped directly by writing her upcoming memoir, due for release in the first week of May, which involved going back through old emails she sent to coaches and psychologists from the earliest years of her career.

The exercise was both illuminating and, by her own admission, a little humbling. The rider those emails revealed was a long way from the dominant champion the sport came to know: full of questions, eager to learn, and not always welcome for it.

"I feel sometimes a bit ashamed how much I was asking everyone. I think for sure they thought, here she is again with her questions."

Rather than set those memories aside, Van Vleuten now uses them as a deliberate reference point with the riders she works with. Going back to the less polished version of herself, she says, has made her a better mentor.

"I go back to the rider, the less successful rider I was in the beginning of my career. The writing of the book helped me in my role there."

Van Vleuten also shed light on the timing of her retirement, confirming that the decision had been made long before her record-breaking 2022 campaign, in which she claimed three Grand Tours and the World Championships in Wollongong. 

She told her partner in January of that year that she would stop at the end of 2023, a resolution that even the greatest season of her career could not shake.

The driving factor, she explained, was not fatigue or injury but something more fundamental — the feeling that she had extracted everything she could from the process of improvement that had always motivated her more than winning itself.

"Winning was a nice result, but not the most important thing," she said. "I was really enjoying the process of getting better. And then I could already feel that I didn't see any details on how to become a better cyclist."

Stepping away while still at the top, she believes, was the right call.

"I wanted to stop at a level where I was still keen and motivated. I think it was the perfect timing."

Listen to the full Hotseat podcast with Annemiek van Vleuten 👇