Annemiek van Vleuten's yearly attic clean out auction, where she sells cycling items and memorabilia to raise money for charity, has clearly become a fixture for the retiring professional cyclist. So much so that even when she crossed the line at the Tour of Flanders, bloodied after crashing just before the Koppenberg and losing her final chance to take a record third victory, she still had the presence of mind to salvage some good from a bad day on the bike.
"Normally I would have thrown that suit away, but now I thought; 'save immediately for the auction'," said Van Vleuten in a post on her website. "It is unwashed, the blood is still on it and the numbers too."
"I also kept the leader's shirt from the last race I won, the Tour of Scandinavia, with the numbers still on it," said Van Vleuten. "The suit I rode in at the last World Cup in Glasgow, also comes with (washed) jersey numbers."
