2022 was a golden year for Annemieke van Flugten, but a gold medal to end the season is out of reach and her place at the start of the elite women's road race world championships is in jeopardy.

"I'm very disappointed, I've prepared very well for this. After the Tour I went to the high altitude and it was all for this," Van Vleuten told Cycling News at the team hotel in the Netherlands on Thursday night.

The 39-year-old Dutchwoman is giving herself one last chance to start in Saturday's road race as she recovers from injuries sustained in a crash in the opening meters of the mixed TTT at the Wollongong World Championships.

"It wasn't the best, but it could have been worse. After yesterday's crash I was pretty lucky. 'On the bike I couldn't get out of the saddle, although it was surprisingly possible. The fracture in my wrist is the thing that bothers me the most, and I can't stand up or put any pressure on the bars with my arms. So I'm very disappointed

"It wasn't a tire exploding and crashing, it was a chain slipping or something. I reviewed the video and figured out what happened. It was super unlucky. I was joking that 'when I start wearing orange, it's not my lucky day.'"

Van Vleuten, a rider who attacks from the saddle, laughed when asked if he attempted a seated attack on this ride.

"No, I wanted to see if I could ride today first," she laughed. 'I wasn't thinking about competing on Saturday.

After being told by doctors that riding would not cause any further harm, Van Vleuten was able to decide for herself whether to start.

"I started on rollers, then I went out on the road and wondered what it would be like if I hit a bump.

"I didn't want to be stuck on a bike in the peloton on a Saturday. It makes sense to be responsible or to get started."

"I'd like to be able to ride the bike on a Saturday.

Since Marianne Bos won gold at the 2006 Salzburg World Championships, the Dutch team has only missed a medal once, in 2014. And in 2019 and 2020, Anna van der Breggen and Van Hulten swapped places on the podium, winning gold and silver medals.

After starting the season with wins in the Setmana Valenciana Forta Comunita Valenciana Femminé, Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, and Liège-Bastogne-Liège Femmes, van Breuten is the Giro d'Italia Donné, Tour de France Femmes, and the Serratigit Challenge by La Vuelta to complete the calendar year's "Grand Tour" victories.

It was no surprise that Van Vleuten headed down under as a strong contender to add to his 2019 road title and 2017 and 2018 time trial titles. After a "wattage inferior" time trial, Van Vleuten has put all his energy into the road race, but his start is uncertain, let alone a challenge for the rainbow jersey. The saving grace is the strength of the Dutch team.

"We have many different scenarios and my strength is one of them. There is no need to panic. We have more scenarios, more cards to play," she said of her team, which includes Ellen van Dijk, who just won her third World ITT title.

The women's 164.3-km road race will consist of six laps around Wollongong city center, including Mount Pleasant.

"You can't sit on this steep climb," Van Vleuten said, likening it to the decisive climb of the Amstel Gold Race, the Cauberg. The Dutchman has won this race five out of the last eight times, most recently in 2021 with teammate Marianne Vos.

"Marianne Vos won a lot of times in Cauberg and I see this last climb as really similar to Cauberg," she said of her three-time world champion teammate.

Last year in Flanders, Elisa Balsamo broke a four-year rainbow streak in the Netherlands with a sprint win over Vos. And the Italian is one of the riders Van Vleuten and her teammates want to eliminate as early in the race as possible.

"There are some super fast sprinters in this peloton and I want to drop them on the climb. I want to drop them on the climb," she said.

It remains to be seen whether Van Vleuten will be in pain or suffering on Mount Pleasant on Saturday.