{"id":240550,"date":"2026-04-27T04:13:49","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T04:13:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/27\/i-really-didnt-feel-well-anna-van-der-breggen-cuts-through-with-fourth-at-liege-bastogne-liege-despite-illness\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T04:13:49","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T04:13:49","slug":"i-really-didnt-feel-well-anna-van-der-breggen-cuts-through-with-fourth-at-liege-bastogne-liege-despite-illness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/27\/i-really-didnt-feel-well-anna-van-der-breggen-cuts-through-with-fourth-at-liege-bastogne-liege-despite-illness\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;I really didn&#8217;t feel well&#8217; \u2013 Anna van der Breggen cuts through with fourth at Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge despite illness"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p id=\"elk-e62ed883-40d2-4425-be94-dfd6743f4794\">Plenty may have changed in women&#8217;s cycling since the era when <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/riders\/anna-van-der-breggen\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/riders\/anna-van-der-breggen\/\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/riders\/anna-van-der-breggen\/\" rel=\"noopener\">Anna van der Breggen<\/a> spent seven years straight walking away from the Ardennes Classics with at least one win in hand but this year, in her second season back from a set-aside retirement, the podium once again looked within reach for the Dutch rider.<\/p>\n<p>Illness had stymied Van der Breggen&#8217;s run at the three races in her first year after returning, in 2025 delivering a DNF at Amstel Gold Race, a DNS at La Fl\u00e8che Wallonne, which she has won seven times, and an eleventh at the 2025 Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge. This year, however, it was a far better start for the <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/road\/teams\/uci-womens-worldtour\/2026\/sd-worx-protime\/\" target=\"_blank\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/road\/teams\/uci-womens-worldtour\/2026\/sd-worx-protime\/\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/road\/teams\/uci-womens-worldtour\/2026\/sd-worx-protime\/\" rel=\"noopener\">SD Worx-ProTime<\/a> rider, with ninth at the opener and then fifth in the mid-week Fl\u00e8che Wallonne, but then illness once again presented a hurdle.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"elk-seasonal\"\/><\/p>\n<aside data-block-type=\"embed\" data-render-type=\"fte\" data-skip=\"dealsy\" data-widget-type=\"seasonal\" class=\"hawk-root\"\/>\n<p id=\"elk-e62ed883-40d2-4425-be94-dfd6743f4794-2\">\u201cFor the past two days already, I\u2019ve been dealing with a cold. I tried what I could, but I really didn\u2019t feel well,&#8221; Van der Breggen said in a comment shared by the team on social media. &#8220;It felt like I was riding at only 70% of my capacity. That was frustrating, because with good legs this is always a beautiful race.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"article-continues-below block py-2 text-sm\">Article continues below <svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"inline-block w-2.5 h-2.5 ml-2\" fill=\"currentColor\" preserveaspectratio=\"xMidYMid meet\" viewbox=\"0 0 1000 1000\"><path d=\"M1000 100L500 900 0 100h1000z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/p>\n<aside data-component-name=\"Recirculation:ArticleRiver\" data-recirculation-type=\"inline\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"Trending Bar\" data-nosnippet=\"\" class=\"clear-both pb-0 pt-2 mb-4\">\n        <span class=\"&#10;            flex&#10;            after:content-[''] after:flex-1 after:ml-4 after:my-[0.7rem] after:border-t after:border-solid after:border-t-[#ccc]&#10;            before:content-[''] before:flex-1 before:mr-4 before:my-[0.7rem] before:border-t before:border-solid before:border-t-[#ccc]&#10;            font-article-heading pb-0 !text-base uppercase sm:text-sm font-bold&#10;        \"><br \/>\n            You may like<br \/>\n        <\/span><\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Despite that, the 36-year-old Dutch riders still managed to deliver <a data-analytics-id=\"inline-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/pro-cycling\/womens-cycling\/liege-bastogne-liege-femmes-demi-vollering-unmatched-on-cote-de-la-redoute-in-35km-solo-move-to-claim-record-third-victory\/\" data-url=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/pro-cycling\/womens-cycling\/liege-bastogne-liege-femmes-demi-vollering-unmatched-on-cote-de-la-redoute-in-35km-solo-move-to-claim-record-third-victory\/\" data-hl-processed=\"none\" data-mrf-recirculation=\"inline-link\" data-before-rewrite-localise=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/pro-cycling\/womens-cycling\/liege-bastogne-liege-femmes-demi-vollering-unmatched-on-cote-de-la-redoute-in-35km-solo-move-to-claim-record-third-victory\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">fourth at Li\u00e8ge-Bastogne-Li\u00e8ge<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the end it was good, but I actually felt bad the entire race,\u201d said Van der Breggen.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\" aria-hidden=\"true\">Demi Vollering (FDJ United-SUEZ) made her winning move from a heavily reduced peloton at 35km to go and, while Van der Breggen wasn&#8217;t at that point with the first bunch of chasers, she made it into the leading pursuit group at around 10km to go. It ultimately came down to a sprint for the remaining two podium places between Van der Breggen, Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Premier Tech) and Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon-SRAM zondacrypto}, with Pieterse and Niewiadoma-Phinney taking second and third.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cVisma made it really hard on the climbs and I tried to follow where I could,&#8221; said Van der Breggen. &#8220;We had really bad luck with Lotte Kopecky, who had mechanical problems. Otherwise, we were well positioned in the race, but I didn\u2019t expect to still be sprinting for a podium in the end.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"slice-container-newsletterForm-articleInbodyContent-DSPLoZwhqo39z5bHTf8yN\" class=\"slice-container newsletter-inbodyContent-slice newsletterForm-articleInbodyContent-DSPLoZwhqo39z5bHTf8yN slice-container-newsletterForm\">\n<div data-hydrate=\"true\" class=\"newsletter-form__wrapper newsletter-form__wrapper--inbodyContent\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-form__container\">\n<section class=\"newsletter-form__top-bar\"\/>\n<section class=\"newsletter-form__main-section\">\n<p class=\"newsletter-form__strapline\">The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"paywall\" aria-hidden=\"true\">However, after getting that close to the top three, it&#8217;s not surprising that there were some thoughts of what could have been.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a pity that the Ardennes Classics are over now. I was getting better and better, and who knows what could have happened without that cold,&#8221; Van der Breggen said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paywall\" aria-hidden=\"true\">Regardless, the strength of the result even in the less than ideal circumstances bodes well for what is ahead.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow it\u2019s time to recover well and move on to the Vuelta,\u201d said Van der Breggen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cyclingnews.com\/pro-cycling\/womens-cycling\/i-really-didnt-feel-well-anna-van-der-breggen-cuts-through-with-fourth-at-liege-bastogne-liege-despite-illness\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Plenty may have changed in women&#8217;s cycling since the era when Anna van der Breggen spent seven years straight walking away from the Ardennes Classics with at least one win in hand but this year, in her second season back from a set-aside retirement, the podium once again looked within reach for the Dutch rider. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":240551,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6804],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-240550","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}