{"id":295070,"date":"2025-07-27T05:05:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-27T05:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/295070\/"},"modified":"2025-07-27T05:05:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-27T05:05:11","slug":"the-best-female-cyclist-ever-marianne-vos-shows-timeless-class-with-tour-de-france-femmes-stage-1-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/295070\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The best female cyclist ever’ – Marianne Vos shows timeless class with Tour de France Femmes stage 1 win"},"content":{"rendered":"

As if Marianne Vos<\/a> ever had anything to prove, the 38-year-old showed again on Saturday why she is, in the words of her sports director, and any longtime fan of the sport, \u201cthe best female cyclist ever\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Dutchwoman \u2013 a former multiple world and Olympic champion \u2013 stormed to victory on stage one<\/a> of the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift<\/a>, fending off the puncheurs in Plumelec, and tagging her Visma-Lease a Bike<\/a> team-mate Pauline Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot on the line. Before the day\u2019s stage, Vos already counted 257 wins to her name. She now has 258, and a yellow jersey on her shoulders.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was something I didn\u2019t really think about going into the stage,\u201d she said in her press conference. \u201cTaking the win is a fantastic feeling, and then, as a bonus, taking the yellow jersey \u2013 I couldn\u2019t really think or dream about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

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By the time Vos arrived in the media hall on the outskirts of the Breton town, the sky had begun to darken. The clock’s small hand ticked beyond the nine. And yet, as she sat in her yellow jersey, zipped up to her chin, the Dutchwoman seemed in no rush to leave.<\/p>\n

After two winless editions of the race, having worn yellow for five days in 2022, Vos was savouring the moment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s cycling,\u201d she said of her string of Tour podium places. \u201cSometimes you\u2019re close, and sometimes it just doesn\u2019t work out.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, it\u2019s [a matter of] keeping the faith, but it\u2019s also the faith that\u2019s put in from the team. If they believe, you feel a little bit of pressure, but you also want to finish it off, and I think that\u2019s what happened today. Everything came together.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Arriving back at her team bus to a mass of French fans and cries of “holy shit!” from her team-mates, Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot<\/a> echoed the same sentiment. \u201cThe plan played out like a dream,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

What that plan entailed was the Frenchwoman launching a flyer on the final climb, a move to \u201cmake the others work so Marianne can do her sprint from behind,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t really think [about winning]. I thought, \u2018Make it to the end, and then we\u2019ll see.\u2019 I didn\u2019t turn around because that\u2019s no use.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Vos thrashed around her shoulder, only meters from the line, Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot looked across and smiled. \u201cI was relieved it was her,\u201d she said, grinning again as she recalled the moment. \u201cI thought, \u2018Uff, it\u2019s Marianne, not someone else.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Afterwards, the pair fell into each other\u2019s arms. It was an embrace that held the experience of almost 30 world titles, honours the two riders have collected between them across multiple disciplines. It was also proof that, no matter how many decades of racing you\u2019ve done, the feeling of winning remains just as sweet.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe become stronger because of those two, and they helped each other to get this result,\u201d said Visma\u2019s sports director Jos van Emden.<\/p>\n

The day\u2019s standings read: first for Vos, and third for Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot, just behind Kim Le Court (AG Insurance-Soudal), but with a few seconds\u2019 time gap already to the rest of the GC contenders.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt couldn\u2019t have been better,\u201d said Van Emden. \u201cWell, one-two would have been better,\u201d he added with a smile. \u201cI didn\u2019t see this coming, not this way, not this impressive.\u201d<\/p>\n

The win, for the Dutchman, only cemented Vos\u2019s existing reputation. \u201cShe\u2019s probably the best female cyclist ever. Of course, I\u2019m not objective. But she keeps confirming that she\u2019s the best,\u201d he said. \u201cYou see, age doesn\u2019t matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

At 38, and now in her 20th year as a pro, Marianne Vos is still at the very top.<\/p>\n

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Marianne Vos<\/a>
\nTour de France Femmes<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As if Marianne Vos ever had anything to prove, the 38-year-old showed again on Saturday why she is,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":295071,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4104],"tags":[4230,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-295070","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cycling","8":"tag-cycling","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114923459258441362","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=295070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/295070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/295071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=295070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=295070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=295070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}