We went to the Soudal Classics cyclocross race in Leuven, Belgium, and we took the opportunity to interview the big star of woman cycling, Marianne Vos (Rabobank-Liv/Giant). The dutch rider stands out for being both a road and a cyclocross top class rider, collecting world titles in both disciplines and being the current olympic champion. After another cyclocross race victory for the Meeuwen cyclist, we had some minutes with Marianne and his eternal smile to talk about this cyclocross season and the upcoming road season.
Hello Marianne, how it’s going the season so far?
Actually quite good. I came into the second part of the season late, nearly on Christmas time. Since then it went quite well I am happy with my shape. Of course for me, not winning all the World Cups was not so great, but I won many other races. I took the dutch title last week thay it might not be a big surprise but still you have to win it. Now is time for the final preparation for the Worlds, every week I feel a little bit better, and it’s not that I going to make a big step, but I hope to be ready for the Worlds.
How do you see the Worlds then?, you have had a big battle with Katie Compton on most of the World Cup races.
Well, there are many other competitors, but Katie has been very strong at the races of the World Cup, and well, it seems like is going to be a battle between us, what is great, that’s good for the race, it gives emotion to the race and makes it more interesting, everybody looking at Katie… is she so good?, is Marianne less good than Katie?, but I think that I’m in a pretty good shape, just getting better and I don’t feel less good even though she made a great step this season. I have to try to keep it up with her.
The Worlds are in The Netherlands this year. It adds pressure to you or extra motivation?
Actually is both. But I have already raced other Worlds in The Netherlands, on 2006 and 2009, last one in Hoogerheide too. So I have done it before and that’s an advantage, it’s not new. And I know that the only thing I can do is to have the best trainings and preparation I’m capable of. Being really well prepared at the start line and then… do my best. So yes, there’s an extra pressure, all the dutch fans want me to win, some of them expect me to win and the only thing I can do is to do it the best way I know. And that extra pressure is going to turn in fans cheering me, and hearing my name yelled so many times during the race so I can give an extra push.
Photo: Cobbles&Hills
After the Worlds, are you planning to do more cyclocross races or to stop for the road season?
Our schedule is only until Lille, the week after the Worlds, it will be my last cyclocross race this season. Then I can focus on the road season again.
And for the road season, do you have already a race calendar?
Well, it looks like I’m going to get into the World Cups and it should be the normal road season. But first, a bit of rest after Lille and then there should be good training preparation for the road season. I have had a short cyclocross season but also quite intense, so I need to do some weeks of base training.
Regarding the road races, do you prefer the World Cup races and other single day races rather than the stages races?
It’s not that, I like both, but naturally I am more a classic rider, a one day rider, more explosive and less a climber. But when I’m in a really good shape I can keep up with the real climbers so I can do it well at the stage races. For me it was great to do that twice for example in the Giro d’Italia. So yeah, that ability was something I didn’t know that I had and it’s good to do that as a challengue.
Therefore this year I hope to do it well once again in the Giro, for us the women is the greatest race, and well, you are from Spain and it would be great to have La Vuelta and Le Tour de France too, but for now we only have the Giro. So yes, the Giro is a goal, and of course, coming back to Spain, Ponferrada for the road Worlds.
What about the Ponferrada course, do you know it? There was some criticism from some spanish media about not being hard enough.
I have heard that it’s a hard one, and it looks hard, not so much as last year’s in Florence, but still a hard one. We will be there probably on June to reccon the course before the stage race Emakumeen Bira. And well, in the end a course is like it is and we have to cope with it. At the London Olympics it wasn’t really a hard course for us too, and then you have to work on a proper plan with your team and actually we tried to make a hard race. And I think that we have a strong team and it doesn’t really matter on what course we have to race, but of course if it’s a hard one it makes you easier to do the selection.
How do you plan the preparation for the road Worlds without a lot of races to choose?
We have the Giro on June, some World Cups on August like Sparkassen Giro in Germany, the Open de Suède Vargarda in Sweden and the GP de Plouay-Bretagne in France, and another race in Holland the at the begining of September, which is important for us as a dutch team. I think that we don’t have a big gap until the Worlds since the last races so the preparation should not be a problem.
How do you see the present situation and future of women road cycling scene at worldwide level? In countries like Spain some good riders have to emigrate and race for italian teams for example. For most of them, making a living from cycling is not possible.
At this moment there are two important countries for women cycling, Italy and The Netherlands. Luckily I was born in Holland I had access to the facilities, the Federation support, they do a very good work with the young riders to help them, for their development. But well, only a few women riders can live from cycling and do it as full time job, and then it’s hard to get it more professional, because many of them, under the professional level are still at job or at school, and the thing is, how do you close the gap?, it’s not easy… If the professionals can train more and better, have more rest and live as a professional with all that this implies… that’s a huge gap. Anyway I think that things are getting better, I can see it through the years, even just in the last two years you see like the scen is growing. In cyclocross there it has been a lot of change in ten years, we have the Worlds, the World Cup series, the bpost Trofee, the Superprestige. So is getting better and better, it’s not all about money but of course it helps, the start money and the prizes. And on the road scene you see that the teams are getting more and more professional and more balanced, there is a minimum wage. Actually it’s not too bad but we still have some steps ahead.
Now with the new UCI’s president, Mr Cookson, it’s a change. I’m happy with Mr. McQuaid, I think he did his best, but I also think that Cookson has some really strong points to work on and now is the time to make a change and go further, because we grew but now we are stuck. In order to go to the next level of women cycling, we need to give some steps and the UCI can help there a lot.