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Like Eddy. Yeah
Last Post 12/24/2013 11:19 AM by Orange Crush. 7 Replies.
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79pmooney

Posts:3189

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12/23/2013 04:17 PM
Marianne Vos.  From Velonews:

"She’s the closest thing the cycling world has seen to Eddy Merckx since, well, Eddy Merckx, and in no way is that hyperbole. This season, she won 27 races. She’s a world champion, the best classics rider of the year, the overall winner of the UCI women’s road World Cup, winner of three stages at the Giro Rosa… and so on."

I said words to that effect here what, last year? 

She has the will and the heart and the smarts to win bike races.  And she has the gift of one of the all-time great engines.  I have no clue how we get all that packaged into a very decent and humble person.

Ben
ChinookPass

Posts:809

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12/23/2013 04:50 PM
devil's advocate (and this doesn't change the fact that she's won a lot of races): but you could argue that the depth in women's racing is shallow due to lack of development and lack of support for the sport (i.e. low salaries, few races). The challenger to Vos may be on a world cup soccer team or wnba team due to lack of exposure to women's racing. The story of the typical women's racer: went to college, started a career, randomly took up cycling, kept up with men in the group rides, dominated the local scene after a few races, dropped career to turn pro.
Keith Richards

Posts:781

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12/23/2013 04:59 PM
I would love to see the woman who won the Kona Ironman, Mirinda Carfrae, as a dedicated road bike racer.

The women deal with the same problem that the American men face in soccer and cycling. The best athletes are not getting involved in these sports.
----- It is his word versus ours. We like our word. We like where we stand and we like our credibility."--Lance Armstrong.
Orange Crush

Posts:4499

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12/23/2013 05:23 PM
Chinook - that goes for her cyclocross wins perhaps. Vos' road wins while plentiful are often hard fought and at the outset of every race its not a given she'll win.

She dialed it back a bit ahead of the Giro Donna this year to focus more on MTB and got schooled immediately. I would say womens' road field is pretty competitive (deep). Vos took that as a good lesson.

And to get competitive on the MTB will take some work/time.
79pmooney

Posts:3189

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12/24/2013 12:52 AM
I remember seeing a film about Eddy years ago. I remember him attacking over and over again until he had rid himself of the last rider, then soloing in. Usually Marianne Vos succeeds with her first attempt, but I can well imagine her having the tenacity to keep it up until everyone was gone. I believe she has that fire in her.

Ben
Entheo

Posts:317

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12/24/2013 08:51 AM
my how quickly we forget... when comparing to the cannibal the first name that comes to my mind is jeannie longo - length, depth & domination of career, and parallels to eddy's training 'programs' too.
jrt1045

Posts:363

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12/24/2013 09:00 AM
Chinook, you slay me. That's a great analogy
Orange Crush

Posts:4499

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12/24/2013 11:19 AM
It's a nice analogy, maybe it applies to the north american scene but it doesn't really apply to the current women's racing Euro top performers. If you check it out, they pretty much all started racing seriously in their teens; kinda like the guys.

I would put the depth of women's racing as certainly better than men's cyclocross and track.
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