Annemiek van Vleuten blog: You can't win the Giro Rosa alone

It's an excellent feeling to set a target, create a plan with my team and my coach, and then nail it - I won the Giro Rosa!

This victory has given me confidence in working toward future goals such as the World Championships or maybe even the Tokyo Olympic Games. I know now that I can be mentally and physically prepared for such significant endeavours.

Winning a big stage race like the Giro Rosa, however, is extra special, even more so than a one-day race. Why? Because no one can win a 10-day race without a strong and committed team - My team is Mitchelton-Scott.

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The moment that my teammates joined me on the final podium to celebrate this overall victory was one of the highlights of the ten days of racing across northern Italy. Being up there on the podium by myself wouldn't have felt right. To celebrate together was incredible, and so much fun.

We went on to celebrate our success with a lovely team dinner in Udine on Sunday night. It was essential for me to commemorate this win together. When I looked at all the people who were seated at our table, I truly felt that everyone contributed something to this victory. I was so pleased that we could all be at one table together, and what’s pretty incredible is that we have more staff than riders!

To give you an idea of what it takes to support a team at the Giro Rosa, Mitchelton-Scott had 14 staff members, not including the riders. We had two sports directors (Alejandro and Martin), three soigneurs (Miha, Nadia and Mattia), two mechanics (Nico and Pat), two bus drivers (Otazu and Jacopo), two photographers (Sara and Luc), along with a videographer (Oliver), our press officer (Lucy) and a physiotherapist (Ellen).

You can read more at Cyclingnews.com