• Monday, August 5, 2024 at 9:00 AM
Analysis From the Great Wall of China to the foot of the Eiffel Tower. It is a sixteen-year world trip for Marianne Vos. An era with five Olympic Games. A career with many highlights, but also the necessary low points. But above all a career with two gold Olympic medals to which she will add a beautiful silver medal in the road race in Paris 2024. Although the Orange quartet has traveled to the French capital with only one goal: gold.
Marianne Vos can’t blame herself. Her assignment is to race attentively in the last sixty kilometers and to join a breakaway so that pressure is put on other stronger countries such as Belgium and Italy. Before the race really gets going, the race falls apart 48 kilometers from the finish due to a crash. Chloe Dygert and Elise Chabey crash before the turn to Montmartre and in the chaos on the narrow Parisian roads the race actually ends here for Lorena Wiebes and Demi Vollering.
Both spearheads of Orange are held up by the fall, in which Wiebes’ acceleration device is touched by another rider. There is a moment of doubt among the duo. They wonder whether the situation with Vos in front is not ideal for Orange. Perhaps that is the only mistake the duo can blame themselves for. After all, world champion Lotte Kopecky reacts immediately after the incident by starting a long chase and thus gets completely back into the race.
Chasing on the local loop in the streets of Paris is not easy in both Olympic road races. Precisely because of the small national teams of a maximum of four riders, it is often a one-on-one battle in the final. Mathieu van der Poel was already confronted with that on Saturday. Vollering and Wiebes see on Sunday that this is an impossible mission.
Lend a hand
“In the chase I had to compete against the thirteen riders in front on my own. That makes it very difficult,” Demi Vollering looks back. “Nobody wanted to lend a hand. All the other countries looked at us, the Netherlands, and left all the work to us. Because we initially tried to keep Lorena in reserve, it was up to me to chase.”
At the front, the Orange quartet is represented by only Marianne Vos. With her experience, she rides the race you can expect from her. Economical when possible, attentive when necessary. With 22 kilometres to go, she comes ahead with the surprisingly strong Blanka Vas.
Sprint for second place. Photo: Cor Vos
Three years ago, at the age of nineteen, Vas finished fourth in the mountain bike race in Tokyo 2021 and that year she also finished fourth in the World Road Championships in Leuven. As an all-rounder in the field, on the mountain bike and on the road, the Hungarian was already called the new Vos, but the pressure she put on herself at that young age somewhat hindered her development. Although she now underlines with her performance in Paris that she will grow into one of the trendsetters in women’s cycling in the coming years.
In the last twenty times that Vos and Vas started together, the Dutch woman finished ahead of the Hungarian 14 times. With her experience, the 37-year-old Vos has a mental advantage over her much younger rival in such a loaded race at the Olympic Games. The two work well together, but from the back they are still overtaken in the last kilometers by Kopecky and the American Kristen Faulkner.
At the very moment of the merger of the two duos at 3.3 kilometers from the finish, Faulkner cleverly sees her chance, after which no one reacts. And if you give the American twenty meters, you are seen. Just think of the Strade Bianche of 2023 how long teammates Kopecky and Vollering had to chase at the time to finally catch her up in the last two kilometers on the climb in Siena.
Despair
“I actually didn’t have the legs to react, although there was also a moment of doubt because you hope Kopecky will do it,” says Vos afterwards. Kopecky thinks it’s up to Vos to pull the chestnuts out of the fire, because the Dutch is normally the fastest. Think of their sprint in Omloop Het Nieuwsblad this spring. “Although I don’t know myself whether I would have been able to react,” the Belgian admits.
The gold has flown, after which the sights must be set on silver and bronze. In a millimeter sprint on the Pont d’Iéna, Vos, Kopecky and Vas are on a line and the finish photo must indicate the medal winners. The second place gives Vos mixed feelings, although after the medal ceremony she is ultimately proud of what she has achieved again.
In 2008 in Beijing, she won the gold Olympic medal in the points race as a 21-year-old debutante. Four years later in London, she was the best in the road race. And now, sixteen years later, she has managed to add a beautiful silver medal as a 37-year-old.
Vos, Faulkner and Kopecky on stage. Photo: Cor Vos
“Of course, there is a reason for the occasional tear,” says Vos after all the formalities. “To achieve this at my fifth Olympic Games is special. The Olympic idea that taking part is more important than winning no longer applies these days. It is already special that I managed to qualify for this competition for a strong country like the Netherlands. After all, it was quite a journey to be at the start here. Especially after my operation last year, this was extremely uncertain. To then win a medal here in front of the Eiffel Tower is very special.”
Like her career is actually worth a movie. Maybe she can end it in Hollywood herself in four years at the Summer Games in Los Angeles. Although she doesn’t want to think about that yet. With Vos, you never know…
