Everything about Marianne Vos

Cycling
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Thursday, 03 October 2024 at 11:56
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Who is Marianne Vos?

Marianne Vos, born May 13, 1987, is a Dutch cyclist and one of the most successful riders in the history of the sport - currently racing for Team Visma | Lease a Bike. She specializes in road cycling, cyclocross, and track cycling. Vos has won multiple world titles, including three times on the road and eight times in cyclocross. She also won Olympic gold in 2012 and has numerous classics and stage races to her name. Her versatility and long career make her one of the greatest cyclists of all time.

Name: Marianne Vos
Birthday: May 13, 1987
Birthplace: 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands
Turned pro: 2006
Height: 1.68m

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Marianne Vos racing for The Netherlands
Marianne Vos racing for The Netherlands

Marianne Vos was born in 's-Hertogenbosch on May 13, 1987. Little did the inhabitants of the medium-sized city know that they were witnessing the development of one of the most talented and successful sportswomen of all time, who, with her countless courses in four cycling disciplines, is a master of everything. She has been compared to Eddy Merckx and often called the most successful female cyclist of all time. Vos currently rides for the women's team Team Visma | Lease a Bike. She reportedly had a salary of €400,000 per year during her time at Rabo-Liv, but currently her salary runs around €80,000 per season. In 2013, she reportedly had a VO2 max of 72.8 and a peak power output of 6.63W/Kg in 5 minutes.

Vos grew up a sports enthusiast and practiced ice skating before starting mountain biking at the age of 14. She won telling titles on the road, cyclocross, track and mountain bike. Perhaps less notable was her career on MTB, where she nevertheless captured four national titles in the junior category from the age of 15. She would partner Moniek Tenniglo, an Italian former pro cyclist and teammate of Vos.

On the track, a tertiary discipline for her, she captured an Olympic title in the points race in 2008 . The same year she won the points race at the World Championships, and later in 2011 she grabbed another set of rainbow stripes in the Scratch discipline. Although she did not focus much on it, she also captured national titles in the points race, Scratch and Madison during her career.

In cyclocross, she made history early in her career. At just 16 years old, she picked up her first pro victory and became the youngest ever winner of a World Cup race in Pijnacker, 2004. She was in her first year as a junior rider, and to this day the record is nowhere near beaten - and probably never will be. Vos was a world-class talent early on, a type that cycling has rarely seen. In her second year as a junior, she won again at the professional level. In her first year under-23, she became European Champion (at Elite level) and later World Champion in Zeddam at the age of just 18.

This was just the beginning for Vos, nicknamed “The Cannibal. She won a total of 7 World Championships from 2006 to 2022, 2 European titles (2005; 2009), 7 National Championships from 2011 to 2021 and a total of 83 victories in her career - 28 of them at World Cup level. These statistics alone would give her legendary status, with records that will likely never be broken again. Vos did not limit her talent to these three disciplines, however, as she also turned to road cycling, where she has shocked many to this day.

Vos began her career on the road in 2006 in the DSB - Ballast Nedam Team. Over the years this team went through many terminologies, later becoming Rabobank Women Cycling Team; Rabo-Liv Women Cycling Team and CCC, among others. Immediately in her debut year she became national road cycling champion, a title she also captured in 2008, 2009 and 2010 - with time trial titles in 2010 and 2011. In 2012, she became Olympic champion on the road in London, a victory greatly appreciated by Dutch fans at the time.

Vos also became a three-time world champion, her first title in her first season as a pro at just 19 years old. She then grabbed the same title in 2012 and 2013, with an almost unbelievable run of 2nd places in five different consecutive occasions from 2007 to 2011. In 2021, she finished second again. She has also become European champion, of course, most recently in 2017.

Her number of wins is so incredibly high that many will dispute the actual number - perhaps without much consensus - depending on the category. On the road alone, as of October 2022, Vos - according to Pro Cycling Stats - has a total of 248 wins in her career. To list them all would be an eye-opening task for even the most experienced readers.

Across the major classics in the women's peloton, Vos has won the following: Trefeo Alfredo Binda (2009, 2010, 2012 and 2019); Ronde van Drenthe (2011, 2012 and 2013); Gent-Wevelgem (2021); Tour des Flandres (2013); Amstel Gold Race (2021); Flèche Wallone (2007, 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2013); GP de Plouay (2012 and 2013) and the Vargarda WestSweden RR (2009, 2013 and 2018). With the resurgence of races such as Paris-Roubaix and Tour de France Femmes, it is likely that Vos will extend her career to try to further enrich her palmares.

Vos has won a total of 32 stages in the women's Giro d'Italia, another record that will likely never be equaled again. She has other huge multiple achievements such as three titles in the Ladies Tour of Norway and a total of 12 stage wins in the Tour of Scandinavia. In La Course by Tour de France, the one-day race most closely associated with the Tour for many years, Vos won in 2014 and 2019. In the returning edition of the Tour de France Femmes, she won two stages, proving she is still riding at the very highest level of the sport.

Vos had 18 to 31 victories on the road alone from 2007 to 2014, an unprecedented number. With her career not yet at an end and currently heading Jumbo-Visma, the Dutch veteran still has the opportunity to expand what is already a piece of cycling history.

In the 2022-2023 cyclocross season, Vos returned to cyclocross with a rainbow jersey and big ambitions, but they were complicated. She picked up a win in Kortrijk against modest competition but that was it in the end. She scored some promising results in the first crosses she participated in, but later in the winter she struggled to get top 10 results - she did not go on to defend her world title, instead ending the season earlier to concentrate on the road. The spring classics did not go as well as she had hoped and she missed meaningful results in the main classics. A third-place finish in Dwars door Vlaanderen was the only time she qualified for victory.

However, her form was better in the spring, away from the classics. In the Vuelta Feminina, she picked up two stage wins and rode in the lead for three days. Those would be her only victories on the road, however; Vos did finish third at the national championships and grabbed several second-place finishes in both the Giro Donne and the Tour de France Femmes, but she could not raise her arms in glory.

In 2024 Vos showed that she was far (very far) from done. In the spring she continued to perform for Visma and took victories in none other than Omloop Het Nieuwsblad, Dwars door Vlaanderen and Amstel Gold Race - whilst finishing fourth at the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix Femmes. Whilst GC is not a possibility for the veteran, in the Grand Tours she also performed, winning two stages and the points classification at the Vuelta Femenina; and although she did not win a stage she also won the green jersey at the Tour de France Femmes. She did win the GC at the Volta a Catalunya Femenina where she surprisingly won a summit finish in the Pyrenees.

Her specialty however is in the classics, and in Paris she rode to a superb second place at the Olympic Games - it could've been a victory, if only the USA's Kristen Faulkner didn't tactically play with the main favourites. At 37 years of age Vos beat Lotte Kopecky in the spring for the silver medal here, but a few months would go on to beat the Belgian to take the gold medal and rainbow jersey for the first time in her extremely long career at the Gravel World Championships. A new title for her eye-stretching palmarès. A world title on the road was also possible but she fell victim to the Netherlands' and Demi Vollering's uncoordinated tactics.

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