@marianne_vos
Marianne Vos (born 13 May 1987 in ‘s-Hertogenbosch) is a Dutch cyclo-cross, road bicycle racer and track racer who has drawn comparison to Eddy Merckx as being “the finest cyclist of [her] generation”. She won two gold Olympic medals, in 2008 in the points race and in 2012 in the road race. Marianne was six times world champion cyclo cross. Twice she won gold in the WC road race and twice gold on WC track. In 2011 and 2012 Marianne won the Giro d’Italia Donne, considered as the toughest stage race for women at this moment. She was also the best in countless World Cup races in Cyclo Cross as well as on the road.
After winning a junior European and world championship in road racing in 2004 and 2005, she continued in senior cycling by becoming world champion in cyclo-cross and road racing at the age of 19. Vos added track racing world championships when she won the points race in 2008 and the scratch race in 2011. In the 2008 Summer Olympics, she won the gold medal in the points race and in the 2012 Summer Olympics, gold in the women’s road race. She has twice been World Road Race Champion – in 2006 and 2012. In cyclo-cross she won gold in six of eight world championships since 2006. In the winter of 2012-2013 Marianne has set a hard to beat ‘world record’ with 16 consecutive victories in cyclo-cross races.
Marianne is the leading lady in professional cycling since may 15 2007, when she reached the first spot in the UCI Ranking of Road Racing. She still holds that position after more than six year now. Amazing is her record in the Giro Donne, the toughest stage race for women. She competed four times until now. She won sixteen stages, twice the general classification and at least one time all the other individuel jerseys.
Her big goal, next to all the World Cup Races, classics an championships, is to compete in the near future in a Women’s Tour the France and the Olympic Mountainbike race in Rio the Janeiro as well as defending her Olympic title in the road race.