"Women's cycling is growing so fast that every year you need to step up" - Marianne Vos

For 18 years Marianne Vos has already been on the top of the cycling world, and for some more years she is expected to remain. She has witnessed many generations grow within women's cycling, but she believes the current evolution is much sharper.

"There are always things to work toward (2023, ed.). There are some beautiful new races on the calendar," Vos said in a press conference following the presentation of Jumbo-Visma this Thursday. "Last year, there was the Tour de France, but the sport of women's cycling is growing so fast that every year you need to step up. As a team, we need to be there and be competitive."

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The addition of cyclocross star Fem van Empel, alongside Coryn Labecki, should make the Dutch team competitive in the spring classics, however Vos is aware that the competition grows strong each year and it becomes harder and harder to grab big wins - also due to the exponential growth of the calendar.

"First of all, it's the cyclocross season around the corner, but then we have some great Spring Classics that I am looking forward to," the veteran continued. "Now we have the three Grand Tours throughout the year and a lot to work toward. Most of all, I'm looking forward to racing with the team and going out there and having fun together and trying to go for the victory."

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Nevertheless, Vos won two stages at the Giro d'Italia Donne, two and the points classification (and a stint in the yellow jersey) at the Tour de France Femmes, and four wins at the Tour of Scandinavia. It was a short road season for her with only 27 race days, however one that could be termed quite successful.

"During the road season, the Tour de France was beyond expectations for women's cycling. It was really cool to be there and to be able to perform at our highest level with the team, and fighting for yellow and then green was fantastic," she continued.

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"It was fantastic to be at the start of the Tour de France; that was win number one. Of course, we had La Course before (where she's won twice, ed.), which was step one, and it was great that ASO started with that, and this year we had the Grand Tour with an eight-day stage race," Vos said.

The amount of races in the calendar has been growing quite a lot in recent years, and the Tour de France Femmes gave a very big level of exposure and quickly became a key goal to many riders' seasons. "As riders, we didn't know what to expect or how big it was going to be. From the fan side, media side, even the tension in the bunch, it was as big as you can imagine."

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For the time being however, she is still the reigning Cyclocross World Champion, and is looking to strike near home in Hoogerheide this coming February. She's raced on six occasions this season, but has taken time to rest and now train after her only win in the X2O Trofee Kortrijk.

"I'm in Tenerife at an altitude camp now," she continues, eyeing a return to the discipline soon so as to have her final preparations for the Worlds. "It was quite a hard and intense training today but to my satisfaction, and so I'm happy to have made it in time for the team presentation as well."

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"I'm obviously in the middle of the cyclocross season and working toward my next goals. My first races back will be Koksijde and then Zonhoven, and then working toward the Dutch and World Championships, both in the Netherlands - two beautiful and big races coming up," Vos admitted.

She will have to face tough competition, in new teammate Fem van Empel, Puck Pieterse and Shirin van Anrooij who despite all being in under-23 age, at least the first two will be racing the Worlds at Elite level. "In such a year, it is difficult to pick a [favourite] victory. It was great to take the world title in Fayetteville at the start of the year; of course, good memories of that," Vos concluded.

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