Marianne Vos (Rabobank) has withdrawn from tomorrow morning’s Ronde van Vlaanderen through illness, her team has announced. The Dutch champion, who has won the first two races of the World Cup so far this year - the Ronde van Drenthe and the Trofeo Alfredo Binda - was odds-on favourite to pick up her first victory in the women’s version of Vlaanderens Mooiste.
“It’s really unfortunate for Marianne,” said Rabobank directeur sportif Jeroen Blijlevens. “The Ronde van Vlaanderen was one of her biggest targets of the spring. We hope that she is fit again soon.”
Even without the World number one, Rabobank women will be the team to beat, featuring last year’s winner and runner-up in Annemiek van Vleuten and Tatiana Antoshina, as well as the powerful Iris Slappendel and climbing talent of French cyclocross prodigy Pauline Ferrand Prevot.
Van Vleuten herself has only recently returned to the peloton however, after undergoing leg surgery over the winter; the 29-year-old made the decisive break in her comeback to racing at the Trofeo Binda, but was unable to hold the pace of the leaders on the hilly course.
Vos will be replaced in the Rabobank team by Sarah Düster, who herself came within a few kilometres of victory in last year’s edition. The German rouleur was the sole survivor of a two-rider breakaway, and was only caught by the group of favourites on the straight, exposed road to the finish. This was the point where Antoshina attacked, and was followed by van Vleuten, who went on to win the two-up sprint.
Vos is on the team’s provisional selection for the Dutch five-day Energiewacht Tour stage race, which starts on Wednesday, April 4th, but it is not yet clear if she will be healthy enough to start. The next round of the World Cup will be la Flèche Wallonne Féminine, on April 18th, where Vos is the record winner, having taken four victories in the last five editions.
Rabobank women to the Ronde van Vlaanderen
Liesbet de Vocht, Iris Slappendel, Pauline Ferrand Prevot, Tatiana Antoshina, Sarah Düster and Annemiek van Vleuten