After road, cyclocross and track; Marianne Vos has become Gravel World Champion - "I didn’t trust my sprint" against Lotte Kopecky

At 37 years of age Marianne Vos continued to excel within cycling. The most successful female rider of all time continues to win and has for the first time conquered a world title in the gravel discipline, after beating none other than Lotte Kopecky this Saturday in Leuven.

“It was of course great to be in the lead together with Lotte. But you know that it will be tough. She is so fast that it is not perfect, but when you ride around with such a top athlete – who has just become world champion on the road and is in good shape – then that is great. It is great to race here together, especially with this audience," Vos said in a post-race interview. Recently, she performed strongly in the road worlds, but uphill she has many riders above.

However, off-road and on mostly flat terrain, the veteran still has it! She took full advantage of her form and technique on the bike to put in a masterful performance this afternoon. “Before that we also rode for quite a long time with a fairly large group. On a tougher section, Lotte set the pace very high. We were then four at first, with Lorena Wiebes and Soraya Paladin still there. But on another tough section we were left with two.”

Just the two of them were left, and it was ultimately going to come down to a sprint. “I didn’t trust my sprint, but I also knew it would be difficult to escape. When I saw that it wasn’t going to work, I decided to wait.” Eventually that proved to be the best option for Vos, who actually proved to be quite superior to the road world champion in the dash to the line, bringing in another big victory for the women's Team Visma | Lease a Bike team.