Categories: Awesome Dutch GuysBelgian AffirmationsLa Vie VelominatusRacingThe Hardmen

Ride Like a Girl: Marianne Vos

"V"os plays in the sand. Photo: Danny Zelck

While it took seven Belgians to dominate the Men’s Cyclocross World Championship race on Sunday, it only took a single Dutchwoman to dominate the women’s race. That’s seven times more dominanter, if my math is correct – which it always is.

Cyclocross fascinates me, mostly because it is completely insane. But I admit: I like the idea of combining Cycling and miniature golf. Put some canti’s on your road bike, take to the mud and woods, add some water hazards, sand traps, man-made climbs and jumps, and now you’ve got a sport for people who hate the way their faces look.

Marianne Vos took her fifth World ‘Cross Championship (a record) to further crowd here palmares with rainbow bands. She’s been World Champion in every discipline involving drop bars, many of them multiple times. She’s also won La Fleche Wallone more times than I can count (I can only count to three), National road and time trial championships, and the Giro d’Italia Femminile. She was even World Champion in Mountain Biking as a Junior. One could easily argue that “V”os is the best active cyclist in the world, bar none.

To that point, we don’t pay close enough attention to Women’s cycling. I’m as guilty as anyone; if I was going to pick the winner of a Women’s race, I’d likely pick Vos or Cooke (if she’s not broken, which she often is) or Teutenberg if the race is likely to end in a sprint, which I wouldn’t be able to tell you without first doing some research. And that pretty much exhausts my knowledge in terms of naming riders, which is disgraceful. After all, if one is to understand the great mystery, one should study all its aspects. (Yes, I just quoted Darth Sidious.)

With the ‘Cross season coming to a close, we’re ramping up to start the 2012 Velominati Super Prestige and with it, we are dragging ourselves into paying attention to Women’s Cycling: the 2012 competition will include women’s races with the points amassed counting towards the overall title.

We are also making some coding changes to the backend system in order to fix some problems which means we’re probably only introducing new problems without necessarily fixing the things that needed fixing in the first place.

We’re also adding more races like the Strada Bianca, changing the scoring model, and eliminating certain things such as free DNF swaps. Stand by for further updates and keep a weather eye on the VSP Page for the updated schedule and rules.

frank

The founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking. As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it. Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen. Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.

Next Il Progetto: Nederaap CX-V »

Previous « Guest Article: Edric's Windy, Wet, Wild Wiggle

View Comments

Netraam says:

Jan 31 2012 at 3:38 am

People are all over Vos and her amazing climbing, but she is mostly a really good sprinter that rides uphill like a beast. Vos vs Pantani is no contest, but what about Vos vs Cav? Especially 1 on 1 that could be very interesting.
Oli says:

Jan 31 2012 at 4:04 am

If women's racing was better supported, there would be more and better racing, creating a more professional and marketable scene in general. If the UCI are happy to sink millions into races in China to grow men's cycling, why can't they sink some into growing women's racing? Their rationale for putting money into China (haven't the Chinese got enough themselves?) is to give racing there a leg up - don't women (over 50% of the retail cycling market right now!) deserve some assistance? I believe women's racing on it's day can be as exciting as men's racing, and often more unpredictable. I've watched as many dull men's races as I have dull women's ones, so for me it's just when the speeds are compared that the comparison suffers. Good racing is good racing, men or women.
Calmante says:

Jan 31 2012 at 4:18 am

Sorry about the blank post.

Vos vs. Cav. I think I need to stop reading this particular thread because I have nothing more to contribute.
Steampunk says:

Jan 31 2012 at 4:49 am

@Nate
I changed my mind: The Dutch are AWESOME. Just great.
JC Belgium says:

Jan 31 2012 at 5:50 am

@Ron

@JC Belgium

have you seen this:http://www.sporza.be/permalink/1.1207956I mean, come on! you didn t expect to win like this?

Woah! The awesome thing to me, despite the pink underbritches, is that cross in on t.v. and being discussed. That's boss for me, again, in spite of pink britches...

they started at 10am, discussing about the candidates, the track, weather conditions, choice of tubes, showing reports and interviews... at 11am, live broadcast of the women's race. after the race, interviews with several participants, coaches, family members... (then a short break, reports about a certain game with a round ball players keep chasing on a grass field or something.) at 1pm, it started all over again, but this time about men's WC. the sports show ended at 5.30pm... in the news, again 20 minutes cyclocross.
sporza (Belgian state television of Sports) is said to have excellent broadcasting of cycling and cyclocross. they have full time 'cycling' reporters, editors and film crews, and they ask former cyclists to comment and analyse races
Ron says:

Jan 31 2012 at 5:58 am

Frank - Didn't know any of that about Stapleton. He was always praised for "doing it right" and having a clean team. Interesting to read about his business practices.
JC Belgium says:

Jan 31 2012 at 6:23 am

@Oli

@JC BelgiumMy friend Genevieve Whitson just raced for New Zealand at Worlds, doing her best again to reprazent for Aotearoa in finishing 35th. I might be wrong, but I believe she is the first Kiwi to race Elite CX Worlds, either woman or man.

respect for Miss Whitson! you should ask her about the atmosphere and how people feel about cyclocross. I can't explain it, for me it s like 'just another weekend', although the WC are a bit more special...

@Mikael Liddy

@Oli Along those lines, Cycling Tips posted a pretty cool article on Lewis Rattray from Aus who competed in the mens race. Awesome story about how he got over there.

Nice article. again: Respect for Mister Rattray!
a clip from his blog:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HE7EQjf4dS8&feature=player_embedded
frank says:

Jan 31 2012 at 6:23 am

@Bill

@frank Thanks for posting that. The VMH and I were at that race and it was incredible to see how she dominated the field. It was a cold, cold day with a frozen hardpack track, except for where they sprayed to introduce some mud.
Here's a pic I took on one of the brutal uphills (you can get an idea how steep it is by looking at the racer still riding at the bottom): http://www.flickr.com/photos/billsabub/5402098796/

Wow, I'm not sure how I missed this. Very cool - and great shot! And the others as well. Thanks for sharing.

@Ron

Frank - Didn't know any of that about Stapleton. He was always praised for "doing it right" and having a clean team. Interesting to read about his business practices.

Businessmen are like politicians, but without the strong moral code. They are good at projecting one message out while doing something contrary on the inside.

By no means am I suggesting, by the way, that his team wasn't clean. I know nothing about that either way.
frank says:

Jan 31 2012 at 6:33 am

@harminator

@frank

The goal is to have the sport stand on its own for its own (considerable) worth, and that starts with awareness, and that's what we're hoping to help out with.

Exactly right. But doesn't it all hinge on TV rights? Isn't that where the big money comes from? Directly through network rights or indirectly through sponsors getting brand exposure. And TV dollars rely on ratings.
Ask the regular woman if she supports better pay for woman cyclists and then ask how much cycling she watches on TV. I just don't reckon theres enough women watching enough TV sport. Women's sport simply doesn't rate as well. Alot of men watch alot of sport but they watch mostly men's sport.
And don't even mention the LFL...

Teams dont' get any moolah from the TV Rights - the race organizers do. The money comes in from sponsors who think they'll make money by being on TV. So its all a big fucking circlejerk.

@Oli

If women's racing was better supported, there would be more and better racing, creating a more professional and marketable scene in general. If the UCI are happy to sink millions into races in China to grow men's cycling, why can't they sink some into growing women's racing? Their rationale for putting money into China (haven't the Chinese got enough themselves?) is to give racing there a leg up - don't women (over 50% of the retail cycling market right now!) deserve some assistance? I believe women's racing on it's day can be as exciting as men's racing, and often more unpredictable. I've watched as many dull men's races as I have dull women's ones, so for me it's just when the speeds are compared that the comparison suffers. Good racing is good racing, men or women.

A fucking plus one. I'm glad I stopped on my above response before reading yours because your point is much better put.

The UCI won't do the right thing because they're still stuck in the 90's trying to figure out how to disown doping while secretly promoting it and protecting their money-maker riders. So it falls to us to start promoting it organically. Grass roots, baby!

@scaler911, @Minion, @Calmante
I'm no pro and I'm also no climber, and my VMH doesn't stand a chance against me on short, steep climbs. But put us on a sustained climb and there's no way I'm ever keeping up. Especially when the gradient changes and she just dances over that shit like it's not even there.
frank says:

Jan 31 2012 at 6:38 am

@Calmante
Nice one!@JC Belgium

@Ron

@JC Belgium

have you seen this:http://www.sporza.be/permalink/1.1207956I mean, come on! you didn t expect to win like this?

Woah! The awesome thing to me, despite the pink underbritches, is that cross in on t.v. and being discussed. That's boss for me, again, in spite of pink britches...

they started at 10am, discussing about the candidates, the track, weather conditions, choice of tubes, showing reports and interviews... at 11am, live broadcast of the women's race. after the race, interviews with several participants, coaches, family members... (then a short break, reports about a certain game with a round ball players keep chasing on a grass field or something.) at 1pm, it started all over again, but this time about men's WC. the sports show ended at 5.30pm... in the news, again 20 minutes cyclocross.
sporza (Belgian state television of Sports) is said to have excellent broadcasting of cycling and cyclocross. they have full time 'cycling' reporters, editors and film crews, and they ask former cyclists to comment and analyse races

That is so incredibly awesome. I hope the coverage for the Classics is like that in April!

That's what the Tour coverage is like in France - my favorite was when Fignon was still alive he had a Pre-Race show called - and my French isn't good enough to be sure I'm getting this right - "Se Fignon le Dit" - What Fignon Says, or If Fignon Says So. He's spend an hour making his own predictions. That would be at about 8am. The race usually started several hours later, and there would be ample coverage before Fignons show and ample after. Just sun up to sun down cycling. It didn't matter if it was any good, just so long as it was cycling!