Annemiek van Vleuten has refused to rule out competing in the World Road Race Championships next week despite crashing out of the Giro Rosa.

The 37 year-old, who was leading the nine-day race by nearly two minutes, fractured her wrist after going down in the final kilometres of stage seven and was forced to abandon the Italian tour on Friday.

But while the elite women’s road race on September 26 comes just nine days after her crash, Van Vleuten remains optimistic about lining up on the start line in Imola, Italy.

"My doctors think very much in terms of possibilities, and I was surprised about that," she said on the radio show Langs de Lijn on Dutch station NPO Radio 1, as reported by NOS.nl.

"But it's not a very complicated fracture. I'll look at it day by day, and do everything I can to recover. I'm in optimal recovery mode, so you never know."

Van Vleuten is the reigning world road race champion after winning the title in Harrogate last year.

In an incredible show of strength, the Dutch sensation attacked with more than 100km to go and went on to take victory by more than two minutes from fellow countrywoman Anna van der Breggen.

However, this year she will have to overcome the disappointment of missing out on the chance to win a third Giro Rosa title in a row.

Van der Breggen capitalised on Van Vleuten’s misfortune by clinching a third Giro title of her own.

The re-scheduled World Road Race Championships have been moved from Switzerland due to the coronavirus pandemic and will run from September 24-27.