Marianne Vos of the Netherlands has dominated the women’s peloton almost since the day she moved up from the junior ranks. The 23-year-old has won virtually every major prize in the sport, including being the only athlete to have taken rainbow jerseys in road, track and cyclocross.
Despite her year long performances though, Vos so far has only one road World Championship to her name, taken at her first attempt in Salzburg, Austria in 2006; since then, she has taken the silver medal on all three occasions.
Velonation caught up with Vos as she prepares for Saturday’s race in Geelong, just outside Melbourne, Australia, where she hopes to go one better than the last three years’ results.
“It's a hard circuit, so that's good for a World Championship,” she said, having now ridden the Geelong course. “I like it, but we'll have to see in the race who it suits best. I think only the best riders will make it to the final and the strongest will win.
“I think it suits me,” she continued, “but it's difficult to say something about the race. We'll have to anticipate on what happens in the beginning and see what gives us the best winning opportunity in the final. As I said I think the best riders will be in the final and I hope to be one of them.”
This season has been just like most others for Vos; highlights included the season-long World Cup competition for the second successive year, having led since winning the Trofeo Binda in March, the Gracia-Orlová stage race in the Czech Republic in May, stage victories in the Tour de l’Aude, the Emakumeen Bira, the Giro d’Italia, the Route de France and the Giro della Toscana, the Dutch time trial championship and the Holland Ladies Tour.
All of this was on the back of a successful cyclocross season, where she won three World Cup races and retaining her World title.
“I've been very pleased with my season so far,” said Vos, “with my form getting slightly better to the end of the season. For me it was important to be in a good shape all year to be able to race for the win in every race we did with our team Nederland Bloeit.
“This worked out very well,” she added, “so I'm happy with that. Now I'm in a good form for my main goal of the season: this Worlds.”
The outstanding favourite knows whom to watch
Although the Dutchwoman is a red-hot favourite for the race, as usual she is unsurprisingly looking at the riders that she has been battling with all season.
“I don't really fear other riders, because I hope to be good and than we'll see how it goes,” she said confidently. “But as we've seen whole season and also in the TT [on Wednesday], I think Emma Pooley and Judith Arndt are two of the big favourites.
“As the circuit is very hard I think the riders with climbing ability will come out.”
Sometimes though, as Vos knows to her cost, just being the strongest rider is not enough; you need a good team behind you. While she is confident in her own team, she also knows which others she needs to watch.
“We have a very good team,” she said, “but there'll be some strong countries to watch, like Great Britain – with more riders who can go for the win – Italy – always there on Worlds – Germany – strong as ever – USA – no big favourites, but some dark horses – and of course the Aussies – wanting to push all limits for home crowd.”
In 2006 Vos’ finishing straight burst took everyone by surprise, and in 2008 she were outsprinted by recently crowned Great Britain’s Olympic champion Nicole Cooke. In 2007 and 2009 though, she was outnumbered by the Italian team both times; finding herself the only rider in orange against two or more from the squadra azzura.
Last year saw her and the USA’s World time trial champion Kristin Armstrong up against Italian duo Tatiana Guderzo and Noemi Cantele; as one attacked the other marked the chasers until eventually Guderzo got away to win, This year though, Vos is confident and hopeful that the oranjes will be strong enough to fight to the end.
“We've a strong and relative young team,” she said, “with some riders who have made a big step forward this year. We've had great results and we're proud to be the number one country on the World ranking. I believe we're here in Australia with the strongest team in years, so I'm looking forward to the race.”
A team of familiar faces
Half of the team is made up of riders from Vos’ Nederland Bloeit team, with powerful rouleurs Regina Bruins (Cervélo TestTeam) and Adrie Visser (HTC-Columbia), fast developing Chantal Blaak and, if the race does come down to a sprint, one of the World’s fastest in Kirsten Wild (Cervélo TestTeam).
To have so many of her usual green and white teammates beside her in he national team means a lot, but when they pull on the iconic orange jersey trade teams are forgotten.
“I'm proud of what we've achieved with our team this year and Annemiek van Vleuten, Loes Gunnewijk and Noortje Tabak have placed themselves on the international top,” said Vos. “Therefore I'm happy for them to race here at the Worlds, but in a national squad the team issues [disappear]. We're here with eight riders aiming for one goal: the gold medal.”
Van Vleuten is one rider who has come a long way in the 2010 season; her presence alongside Vos at the latter stages of a number of races has helped the pair of them to take many of their victories. This is something that the Dutch may be able to use to their advantage come Saturday.
“Annemiek has had a great season,” she said, “with good results from March until now. It's nice we could take advantage of each other in many races, and help each other to the win. In the Worlds race this applies not only for Annemiek though, but for whole the team.
“It's always good to be with more riders in the final, so you can make some tactical moves in the race.”
Multi-disciplined and multi-talented
As well as a dominant road and cyclocross rider, Vos has also taken big prizes on the track, winning both the World and Olympic points race titles in 2008. Although the event has since been removed from the Olympic programme, the newly added Omnium and team pursuit are an attractive proposition to Vos.
This winter she will begin the process of trying to qualify for the London games in 2012, which, sadly for cyclocross fans, means another reduced race programme this winter,
“As I've done in earlier seasons,” she explained, “I'll do about ten cyclocross races from the second half of December untill the Worlds in Sankt Wendel [Germany].
“From November on I'll train on the track and I hope to do the Worlds in The Netherlands at the end of the season.”
Road, track or dirt; it takes a very brave gambler to bet against Marianne Vos.