"The team gives me the freedom where needed" - Marianne Vos returns to Tour de France after a personal loss
Cycling
While on sporting level her cycling season is more than decent, Marianne Vos is not having an easy year of 2026. Due to family circumstances, she had to take a break from racing at the start of the season. And later, a collarbone fracture caused her to stop for another month. But the 39-year-old put herself together in time for the 2026 Tour de France Femmes and is ready to fight to expand her list of three stage victories at Grande Boucle.
In a way, it's almost unusual for Vos to enter the Tour with as low racing workload as this year - she has only 10 race days to her name at the end of July - but that doesn't lower her ambitions at all.
"It's not a secret that the winter has been pretty tough with family circumstances," Vos said prior to the Tour, "and so the preparation for the road season has been different and difficult. But actually after coming back from my collarbone fracture, the training went well, and also the preparation towards the Tour de France went well."
"The last preparations have not been too different [to usual]. We have had a good altitude block and of course you're always curious where you stand, but yeah, I feel ready to go for it with the team."
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Vos further emphasizes that the support and patience from the team where she has a lifetime contract has been important to her in the hardest times. And now, she enters the race with clear mind.
"They give me the freedom where needed and the support that I needed," she said. "So I'm really thankful for that. There is trust from both sides. But for now I think the bike is the thing I love most and I like to do most. When things settled a bit more, I really liked to focus again on the sport and try and prepare as good as possible. Although, I admit it has been tough."
As the second oldest participant of the 2026 race (only Mavi García is older), Vos will inevitably end up tasked with guiding her younger teammates - a role she has grown accustomed to in recent seasons at Visma | Lease a Bike.
"Road captain is a role I really enjoy, and try to do as well as possible," she said. "It's nice to have one rider that has a bit more of an overview and communication with the team car. But in the end, if there's an opportunity to go for a stage, then I think it won't be too difficult to switch."
Ondrej ZhasilCycling Journalist
Ondřej Zhasil is a cycling journalist at CyclingUpToDate and has been part of the team since 2023. He is based in Ostrava, the third-largest city in the Czech Republic, and covers professional cycling across the main UCI competitions, including the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia, and La Vuelta a España. A key focus of his work is startlist analysis and pre-race coverage, where he examines team selections, rider line-ups, and tactical scenarios ahead of major events.
Alongside WorldTour coverage, Ondřej has developed specific expertise in junior cycling and in racing across East Asia, including competitions in China and Japan. He also maintains a broad working knowledge of other disciplines and levels, including cyclocross, while continuing to expand his understanding of mountain bike racing.
Ondřej holds a bachelor’s degree in Mathematics and Physics, which supports his analytical, data-driven approach to performance and race analysis. In his reporting, he regularly uses ProCyclingStats for results, statistics, and historical context. He places strong emphasis on careful sourcing, editorial accuracy, and updating articles promptly when new, verified information becomes available.
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