Marianne Vos left unsatisfied with fifth on Tour de France opener
The legs exploded’ – Marianne Vos left unsatisfied with fifth on Tour de France opener after getting positioning wrong.
Dutch superstar ‘not strong enough’ on finale into The Hague but Visma-Lease a Bike still confident of form after Paris Olympics.
For Vos, stage 1 of the Tour de France Femmes wasn’t the home fairytale in the Netherlands .
she’d hoped for, starting her sprint too far back on Charlotte Kool and being forced to settle for fifth when her legs “exploded”.
Visma-Lease A Bike opted not to try and lead out the two-time stage winner at the Tour, aiming simply to latch onto the wheel of pre-stage favourite Lorena Wiebes (SD Worx-Protime) to try and fight for the win.
Wiebes had an untimely mechanical in the final 500 metres which ruled her out of the running but Vos wasn’t in the position she wanted when that happened.
As the favourite stopped her effort without a rear-derailleur or chain on her bike and Charlotte Kool (DSM-Firmenich PostNL) launched away for victory and the first yellow jersey, Vos was barely in screen on the broadcast, some five places back and a long way from fighting with her compatriot.
“We were a bit too far, she moved up but then the legs exploded and she was not strong enough – the maximum was a fifth place,” DS Jan Boven said.
“Fifth is not really satisfying but it’s a bunch sprint so anything can happen,” said Vos, before agreeing that positioning was the problem.
“I was a bit too far back in the final kilometre, so I couldn’t sprint for the win. I still did everything I could, but Kool turned out to be the fastest today.”
Boven also suggested that while nearing her absolute peak form. some hangover of the commitments and effort that come with winning an Olympic silver medal just a week ago, in a gruelling Paris road race no less, may have played into Vos missing those final few per cent to challenge on stage 1.
“She is in good form, I mean last week was the Olympics and I think she showed [her strength] there but there was a lot of emotion after the Olympics,” said Boven.
The travelling, after the race, all the ceremonies for sure she is not 100% fit – well she is fit, he corrected himself, “but a little bit still the Olympics are there. But it will be coming and the shape is OK.”
