Dutch national coach explains why he dropped Anna van der Breggen and Marianne Vos for the World Cycling Championships

Dutch women's team coach Laurens ten Dam has announced his roster for the World Cycling Championships in Montreal, Canada. It comes as no surprise, of course, that Tour de France Femmes winner Demi Vollering is the team’s leader. What did come as a surprise, however, was that neither Anna van der Breggen nor Marianne Vos made the cut. Ten Dam explained those choices in an interview with the AD.

"Demi is our leader, but at a World Cup, you need each other to go far. The key is to bring all those individual qualities together as a team. If we capitalise on our opportunities at the crucial moments, we can look forward to a great World Championships with confidence," Ten Dam said.

Mischa Bredewold, Riejanne Markus, Lieke Nooijen, Puck Pieterse, Karlijn Swinkels, and Femke de Vries will be going along to provide support, but Van der Breggen, Vos, and Lorena Wiebes will not be there on the other side of the Atlantic.

"Anna's been feeling under the weather. I would have loved to have her here, but she’s been sick a few times since the Tour de France," said Ten Dam. "Lorena will still compete in a championship, but not this one. She’s doing so well, though, that I even joked with her that maybe I wanted to take her along after all."

"But this course isn't really suited for her, and she's also competing in the Track Cycling World Championships in Shanghai. Dragging her all over the world all the time, just because she can handle so much, isn’t such a good idea. She could burn out at some point, even though it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen right now,” the selection committee chair explained.

So Vos won’t be competing either. “She was disappointed, though. But due to personal circumstances—the situation with her father—she’s had such a rough winter that she just hasn’t been able to maintain consistency. I noticed she did have a bit of trouble going uphill every now and then. She’s a top rider, but even top riders feel the effects when they’ve had other things on their minds all winter.” Vos will, however, be competing in the Gravel World Championships in Australia.