Rabobank directeur sportif worried about Dutch phenomenon’s motivation as victories become “too easy”
Rabobank women’s team directeur sportif Jeroen Blijlevens wants Marianne Vos to ride some men’s races, according to Wielerland.nl. Sunday’s Dutch title race was the World cyclocross champion’s eleventh straight victory of the winter; with it all becoming a little too easy for the 24-year-old, and with her complaining of almost becoming bored during races, the former sprinter is worried about his rider’s motivation.
With some very big targets to aim for this year Blijlevens is not concerned about the immediate period, but worries about what the Dutch phenomenon will do next year.
“It will not be a problem for Marianne to motivate for the 2012 Olympic Games and World Championships in Limburg,” said the four-time Tour de France stage winner, “but I am worried about the subsequent period. It's not like Marianne, after the national cyclocross championships, to say that she was having no fun, so we have to be careful that she doesn’t lose her motivation.”
Vos has almost constantly been the number one road rider in the World since she burst onto the elite scene in 2006, when she took what is amazingly her only road World title. The 2011 season was her best yet, when she won almost every race she started, including a Merckx-esque domination of the women's Giro d'Italia; in most of those races she didn’t win, she set up one of her teammates, particularly Annemiek van Vleuten, to take the victory herself.
Once again though, the only target Vos failed to hit was the World championship road race in Copenhagen, Denmark, where she was forced to take an incredible fifth straight silver medal. With the race set to finish at the top of the Cauberg, where the WorldTour Amstel Gold Race, and the women’s Holland Hills Classic – which Vos has won three times – both finish, she will be the overwhelming favourite once more.
Should Vos take the rainbow jersey though – and the earlier Olympic road race – Blijlevens believes she will need greater challenges.
“Riding in some smaller men’s races could make her stay motivated on the one hand, but could also make her continue to make progress,” he explained. “Because I think she can get much better, the men could ride her to the next level.''
In recent tests with her new Rabobank team Vos was reportedly recorded as having a VO2Max [the capacity of the body to transport and use oxygen] of 72.8ml/kg/min; she was also able to produce a maximum of 6.63 Watts per kilo, which is more than many of her male teammates, including Giro d’Italia stage winner Pieter Weening.
Exactly how these figures would translate onto the road, and whether Vos would be genuinely competitive against a men’s field remains to be seen. What is clear though, is that if the 2012 road season is as easy for the 24-year-old as 2011 was – not to mention the 2011/12 cyclocross season – then she will certainly need some kind of new challenge come 2013.