Clocking up her sixteenth consecutive victory of the season and her fourth straight world cyclo-cross championship, Marianne Vos today further underlined her dominance with a superlative performance in Koksijde.
The Dutchwoman forged clear on the first lap, opening an ever-increasing gap over Daphny Van Den Brand as the minutes ticked by. She was better on the technical sections and was able to keep her momentum going on the steep, sandy sections which littered the cross; by the end of lap one she was a cool eleven second clear of her closest rival, and continued to push hard until the end.
Vos eventually crossed the finish line 38 seconds clear of Van Den Brand, who outsprinted Belgium’s Sanne Cant for the silver medal. Sanne Van Paassen (Netherlands) took fourth, 49 seconds back and four ahead of Katie Compton (USA). Nikki Haris (Great Britain) and Sophie de Boer (Netherlands) were sixth and seventh.
“It is always great to get [become - ed.] world champion, and now four times in a row,” said Vos after the finish. “With this amazing circuit and this crowd, this is incredible. After fifteen wins, of course, I wanted a sixteenth, but I knew it would be really hard.”
The 24 year old was head and shoulders above the other riders today, as she has been this season. Yet she remained modest at the finish and said that nothing was guaranteed. “Of course I was kind of nervous, it was the world championship,” she said. “My first race of the season was here and I got second behind Daphny Van Den Brand there. I knew she was really good. Also, at the worlds, you always have riders like Sanne Cant today who can do an extra three percent at the worlds.”
Asked by UCI spokesman Enrico Carpani if she was killing the sport, Vos showed patience in dealing with the question. “Not really,” she answered. “I am working really hard, each time I have to race really hard to win.”
She undoubtedly raced hard today, pushing herself all the way, but was simply in a different class than the other riders.
Perfect start for defending champion:
Vos was sharp from the off, accelerating well and latching onto the wheel of Great Britain’s Helen Wyman. The latter was the quickest in the very first section, but was soon overtaken by Vos and started slipping backwards.
Van den Brand moved up and led the race, the duo opening a gap over the others. Vos then pushed ahead when she rode strongly on one of the many steep, sandy hills, being able to remain on the bike and keep some momentum while Van de Brand and the others were forced to run.
At the end of lap one, Vos was a full 11 seconds clear of Van Den Brand, with Van Paassen 28 seconds back. The rest of the field was scattered further back in small groups, the difficulty of the course being made clear.
Vos continued to extend her lead, riding sections of the course that Van Den Brand and the others had to run. Behind, Czech rider Katarina Nash was going well and led a chase group up to Van Paassen. They, Sophie de Boer (Netherlands) and Kant settled into a four-woman group racing in the bronze medal position.
By the end of lap two, Vos had further extended her lead by ten seconds over Van Den Brand and was forty seconds ahead of the four chasers. Compton, who had a bad start, was making up ground and getting closer. Nikki Harris (Great Britain) was also trying to get back on terms.
Van Den Brand had appeared to be the strongest of those chasing Vos but then weakened for a while. Cant pulled ahead of the chasers and rode hard to try to get across; she was joined by Compton and Van Paassen, and together they reeled in Van Den Brand. Vos was continuing to extend her lead all this time, finished lap three 34 seconds ahead of them despite toppling over on a sandy corner during that circuit.
Wyman was having a tough time, meanwhile, coming down hard on a sandy section and getting momentarily tangled up in her bike.
Having looked very strong minutes earlier, Compton went through a moment of weakness and slipped backwards, conceding several seconds to the three other chasers. Van Paassen pushed the pace onwards, stretching out Van Den Brand and Cant and keeping the momentum going.
At the bell, Vos was showing no signs of slowing and was fighting for every second, wanting to further assert her dominance. Van Paassen, Van Den Brand and Cant crossed the line in that order, 52 seconds back, while Compton got back up to them at that point and moved to the front. Harris was chasing alone behind.
The battle for silver ramped up when Van Den Brand and Cant pushed ahead on the sandy sections, making their move. Harris briefly got across to Compton, who again was faltering on the more technical parts and slipping back again.
Van Den Brand was looking strong again and opened a slight gap over Cant, yet lost pace on one of the short, sandy climbs. She had to put her hand on the barriers to steady herself, giving the Belgian the chance to get back. Van Paassen and Compton made the junction soon after, although the latter slipped on the sand very soon afterwards and conceded ground.
Out front, Vos powered home to take victory, elated with her fourth consecutive world title and her fifth in all. Cant and Van Den Brand pushed clear and went onto the finishing straight together. There, the Dutchwoman easily won the sprint for silver, overtaking her rival with approximately 100 metres to go. Van Paassen took fourth, 49 seconds back and four ahead of Compton.
The American had hoped for more from the race, and explained what went wrong. “The one thing I wanted to do was to get a good start, but I didn’t do that. I missed my pedal, couldn’t find it, then crashed on the turn and lost my spot.
“I tried to chase really hard, but got caught in traffic.”
Vos had no such problems, making a flawless start and then simply racing clear of the others. She has the chance for a very big season, naming the Olympics and the world championships in the Netherlands as two major targets.
They are longer term targets, but she stressed the importance of taking things step by step. “I first wanted to focus on this one and it is great to start the year with a world title,” she said. “Now I can think about the rest of the season.”