By Daan Hakkenberg
After 2561 days – converted 7 years plus 4 days – Marianne Vos has the rainbow jersey back. Her eighth in the cross. Plus three on the road and two on the track, makes thirteen in all. In the American Fayetteville, after an intense fight over seven laps, she finally beat Lucinda Brand in the sprint. The two were engaged in a cross tango of almost an hour on a bone-dry course. Vos: ,,It was such a difficult match. I knew Lucinda would be very hard to beat. It was so hard to get away. I had to stay calm. Do the right things on the last lap and then focus on the sprint. In the run-up to this match, you don’t look back too much, you try to focus on the match itself. But I still can’t believe it.”
In September Vos was already close to a new rainbow jersey with her second place at the World Championships on the road in Leuven. In Fayetteville the anthem finally sounded for her again and she was allowed to wear it. The last time Vos was seen in the rainbow jersey was more than 7 years ago in the world cup competition in Hoogerheide in 2015. A week later, she finished third at the World Cup in Tabor, Czech Republic, and gave her world title to the Frenchwoman Pauline Ferrand. -Prevot. What followed was a year without barely a game. Vos had literally driven and trained himself. The decline had already set in in the years before, but Vos rode on briskly. Too long, too much, too hard.
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