Interview | Van Anrooij emotional after "next level off-day" at National Championships: "It's tough, it came out of nowhere"

Riejanne Markus won, Demi Vollering finished second, Annemiek van Vleuten third, but what happened to the other favorite for the Women's Dutch National Time Trial Championships? Shirin van Anrooij expressed her excitement for the 42-kilometer time trial just a day before the event, but after a tremendous struggle, she finished ninth on Wednesday evening, over three minutes slower than the winner. After shedding tears of disappointment and frustration on the team bus, she later provided an analysis for IDLProCycling.com.

Van Anrooij, who did still manage to secure a bronze medal in the U23 category, is clearly still emotional as she takes a moment to answer some questions. "It was bad, I'm extremely disappointed. I have absolutely no explanation for it. I was really looking forward to it, and I felt very prepared. During the high-altitude training camp, I focused a lot on the time trial and had much stronger performances than last year in all my training sessions. This season, I have demonstrated in all the classics that I have improved and become stronger, but today, starting from the very first kilometer, it just didn't go well," she says.

From the moment she rolled off the podium in Elspeet, her legs refused to do their thing. "I was trying to find a good rhythm, but the cornering just didn't work. Annemiek (van Vleuten, ed.) passed me after only one lap and while I'm usually not aiming for the win here, reaching the podium was a goal. I wanted to try that after last year, so it was tough. Especially because it came out of nowhere. I felt really good yesterday and even during the warm-up today. But during the time trial, I felt terrible. I was riding at 40 to 45 watts below the power I should have been able to maintain. And then 42 kilometers feels like a very, very long feat."

The long time trial was new for many women, as it was the same distance as the men's race. "Last year, it was 28 kilometers. Even that feels long when you're having an off-day. But even an extra twenty minutes is longer," Van Anrooij continues, slowly but surely regaining the smile on her face. "When things don't go well... I was relieved when I crossed the finish line. But it's still very disappointing because I had made the time trial a goal, also to try to qualify for the World Championships. Now, it seems like I can put a big red cross across all those plans. It's challenging to accept."

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Van Anrooij wants to turn frustration into motivation for the National Road Championships

A disappointed Van Anrooij - that's something we don't see very often. A smile is never far away for the 21-year-old top talent, but of course that is not always the case. "I've had setbacks before, although it may often seem like everything is going smoothly. That's not true, although this season has been going very well so far. This is the first disappointment in that sense, and it's unfortunate because it was actually the first major goal of the season. But I've experienced setbacks before, in cyclocross and even in last year's time trial at the World Championships, which didn't go well at all. There are always off-days and in a road race, you can hide a bit, but not in a time trial. This was a next level off-day."

As she tells her story, the tears dry up in the corners of her eyes, and her demeanor changes with each word. Here stands a woman who is not yet done with this edition of the National Championships. "Right now, I'm just disappointed and frustrated. In a way, it's a good thing and a positive sign that I'm so frustrated because it shows how much I want it. There's still another National Championships on Saturday and I'm really looking forward to it. I'm the only one representing Trek-Segafredo, so it will be a tough challenge, but there's enough frustration inside me and I want to channel it. My form can't just have disappeared like this."

After a fantastic spring and a second-place finish in the Tour of Burgos, she went on "a good altitude training camp." "All the training sessions there went really well. That's why this is such a blow, because I never saw it coming. I truly have no explanation for it. Last Saturday, in a training race in Belgium, I produced higher power numbers than today and that race was twice the distance. It was just really bad, so now I want to turn it around, give it my all on Saturday, and then focus on the Giro. The Tour? It was never part of the plan; the team opted for the Giro, although I am on standby for the Tour."