Annemiek van Fruten announced her impending retirement this week, while also revealing that she will remain with her team, Movistar, for the final season of her career next year.

Today, the Dutch great raced for the first time since his victory in Liege-Bastogne-Liege, finishing sixth in the opening time trial of the Giro d'Italia Donne.

The 39-year-old has her sights set on a "Giro Tour double" and overall victories in both "Grand Tour" stage races, but she says she will not prioritize the French race over the long-running Italian Tour.

"For me personally, there is no big difference between targeting the Giro and the Tour de France. There are more important races than just the Tour de France," Van Vleuten said in a video interview posted by the team on social media.

"There will certainly be pressure from the outside world, and it's nice and good to have almost the same team, not only the riders, but also the staff here in the Giro," she added.

For Van Vleuten, this will be her first attempt at winning the Giro d'Italia Donne overall with Movistar.

"It's my first time targeting such a big stage race with this team, so I will definitely make mistakes," Van Vleuten said. 'It's a new challenge and I love a challenge, but with a new challenge you definitely make mistakes and you have to learn from them.'

"I'm confident that with the same group of guys we'll learn quickly and improve quickly for this team.

With the 10-day Giro d'Italia Donnay ending two weeks before the eight-day Tour de France Femmes Avec Zwift begins, many riders have chosen to target only one of the two stage races. However, some athletes, like van Breuten, will compete in both.

"My training plan was to arrive here in top shape, 100% sure that I would finish the Tour de France in the same shape I am now," he said. I also knew that during these two weeks I needed to recharge my batteries, not only physically but mentally as well. [because] I'm targeting both big stage races for GC, and it's tough to recharge from that, especially mentally. I wake up stressed every day, I wake up with a stone in my stomach every day. You have to stay focused from start to finish and conserve energy. That's the challenge."

The former world champion broke his wrist in a mountain bike accident and was forced to withdraw from the Spanish stage race in May.

"I'm very keen to race, and it helped that I hadn't raced much before this," she said, explaining that she may need to curb her energy a bit for the two longest stage races on the calendar.

"I'm not someone who likes to conserve energy or stay quiet. I know that's not possible in a stage race.

"So it's a challenge for me to switch off the one-day race style and move to a race style that conserves energy. That's not my strong suit either, but I have to be patient until stage 7. I think the biggest challenge for me this time around is to be patient, but stay focused.

"It's very different if you're just going for the two stages, especially when there's no finish unless you conserve energy, which is the difficulty of a stage race.

Olympic time trial champion Van Vleuten finished sixth in the 4.7km opening prologue.