Annemiek van Vleuten struggled to hold back the tears as she realised she had become the women`s time trial gold medalist at the UCI Road World Championships in Bergen. She jumped for joy and then ran across the road to celebrate with her mother, the two hugging each other in a special family moment, cancelling every trace of the pain of suffering that Van Vleuten faced after her dramatic crash in the Rio Olympic road race. `Last year my mum watched the Rio race on television, it was her birthday and she was with lots of my family, so it was a really hard day for her,` Van Vleuten revealed in the post-race press conference. `My father died in 2008 and so it was really special to have her here and celebrate the good things of cycling together. We`ve dealt with bad things together in the past, so it`s important to be really happy and proud to celebrate and to also remember my father. When I`m happy, I show it. I wanted to celebrate with my mum and thank her for being there.`ADVERTISEMENT Van Vleuten will always be remembered for her dramatic crash in Rio last summer. It left her with a severe concussion and three fractured vertebrae, yet like most athletes, she has put it behind her and moved onto new goals. The world time trial title was one of them. `I already finished with Rio a month after it. I set a new goal and so Rio and this world title are not related to each other. We have a really good Olympic champion in Anna [van der Breggen, who was sitting next to her as she spoke],` van Vlueten said. `Rio is not a scar for me. Cycling is about dealing with the ups and down as an athlete. It`s a good quality that you need. You have to set new goals and not look back. I`m actually grateful I have the ups as well as the down like one last year. I`m happy to have had an amazing season.`
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