A true winner is satisfied only with gold, and Marianne Vos could hardly be truly satisfied with her sparkling silver medal on Sunday in the heart of Paris. The Olympic idea that participating is more important than winning has long since ceased to apply to her.
No, she wanted to win, the whole Dutch team wanted to win and that didn’t work out. Vos finished second, behind the surprising American Kirsten Faulkner and ahead of Belgian Lotte Kopecky.
It’s a place that doesn’t really count. But he also understood that in the bigger picture of his career it was so special, he said an hour after finishing. “The fact that you can be part of such a strong country, such a strong team and that because of the situation you are the advanced pawn to achieve a result, it’s very special. It’s not for nothing that there are tears from time to time.”
Vos, the Grand Dame of cycling, added another great chapter to her already rich book on cycling in Paris, although it could have been a little better. Vos’s “very beautiful journey” is one that continues and continues. For Vos (37), the new Olympic medal came no less than sixteen years after the first. In 2008 she was proclaimed Olympic champion in the track points race. In London, four years later, she won the road race.
You experienced everything
He has been through everything since then. The pink cloud, the deep valley. Cycling changed, Vos followed. The silver in Paris also marked for the umpteenth time that he can return to the top of the podium after great discomfort. Last year he underwent surgery due to a narrowing of the femoral artery in his left leg. After the operation, recovery took almost three months. “Last year I had no idea if I could even be part of this.”
But if anyone knows what her body can handle and how to keep cycling fun, it’s Vos. Because when she returned to racing this spring, she won one honour after another, including victories at the Omloop het Nieuwsblad and the Amstel Gold Race. Shouldn’t she be the leader in Paris? They were figments of her imagination that she herself kept away from. At first she just hoped to be chosen.
Of course she was chosen. No national coach leaves a fit Vos at home. She accepted her role as a servant to leader Lorena Wiebes to avoid the scenario in Tokyo, where the Dutch team failed to notice that Austrian Anna Kiesenhofer was still in the lead due to a miscommunication.
She became the advanced pawn.
However, she became the most important Dutchwoman in the race. After a fall, the others pulled away and Vos eventually took the lead together with the Hungarian Blanka Vas. Tactically clever, because they particularly like Lotte Kopecky, the big favourite from the start.
After the final climb to the Sacré-Coeur in the heart of Montmartre, cheered on by thousands of fans, a unique finale followed. Vas and Vos led the way, followed by the amazing Kirsten Faulkner and Kopecky. It was one of the most exciting finals in recent years. The gap remained at five seconds over the kilometres.
The connection was made at 3.4 kilometres. Immediately afterwards the American jumped off. Vas went after her, but stopped three metres from the American’s rear wheel. Vos, third on the train, chose to remain seated, hoping that Kopecky would help him. But the Belgian did nothing either.
Meter by meter they watched Faulkner ride away. The gold disappeared from view with each pedal stroke. Vos later declared that at that moment she simply wasn’t good enough to keep up with her. And she said; Sometimes you have to gamble a little. It was cleverness on Faulkner’s part to choose that moment. She became champion, Vos raced to second place.
If Vos had any chance of winning Olympic gold, it would be on Sunday. A tactical decision made the difference. That stunk, of course. But then come the words: the silver was “certainly so Eiffel Tower-like,” but it was still beautiful.
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