Marianne Vos withdraws from World Championship to support her family in rough times

The Dutch team with Demi Vollering, Anna van der Breggen and Marianne Vos in their ranks has the greatest firepower of all the countries participating in the 2025 World Championships women's road race. However the latter woman will ultimately not travel to Kigali due to personal reasons.

"Her father had surgery last week," national coach Laurens Ten Dam explained to NOS. "He was in the hospital and has been moved from the ICU to medium care. He's doing well under the circumstances, but it's been a very tense and hectic few days for Marianne. I called her this morning and we both said: you're staying home. She's there for the family now, which is much more important than riding your eighteenth World Championship... I've lost count."

The 38-year-old has already participated in the rainbow race 17 times and thus you could argue that the Dutchwoman is not missing out on much by spending important time with her family.

In the meantime, Ten Dam has already called up a replacement for the three-time world champion. Her will be a trade team colleague of Vos: Femke de Vries. The 31-year-old rider recently impressed with a second place overall at the Tour de l'Ardèche. Therefore, she's certainly more than a fair substitite for her more experienced teammate.

The Visma | Lease a Bike rider will get on a plane as soon as possible to join her compatriots in Kigali. "She'll be coming this way today or tomorrow. I want her on the team as soon as possible," said Ten Dam.  

The race on Saturday will quite possible take the crown for a hardest World Championship course the female peloton had to conquer and with a lot of climbing, team depth will become crucial deep into the race. In that regard, having one less designated co-leader could help the Dutch ladies finally got on-board and secure the big victory that has been evading them for a while.