Marianne Vos wins Womens Tour of Flanders

Tom Butcher

Above The Cows wrote:

Good points. She is awesome but she has even less competition these days it seems. I remember one of the most fantastic mountain stages of any race I ever saw was a duel she had with Pooley at the Giro Donne, 2011 I think it was, Marianne would capitalize on her increased weight to pull out a gap to Pooley on the downhills and then Pooley would doggedly reel her back in and then attack her. Marianne finally got it in a sprint for the line. It was an epic duel of two different types of cyclists playing to their strengths.

Sounds like a great race. Pooley is one who could challenge her on some parcours but she does lack a bit in bike handling - she's a relatively poor descender and not as comfortable in the bunch as she could be - probably in part because she came to the sport late. Such a shame Cooke's peak was relatively short lived - I think she is another one that at her best could have given Vos a race.

danlikesbikes

I have a slightly different take on her dominance though as I don't think its such a bad thing.

Firstly she is, being so good, brining in a lot more sponsorship to the women's side & whilst yes a lot will be personal sponsorship deal for her they will also be going into her team which gives other female rides an increased pay packet from what I understand is already relatively modest.

I think without a dominant person up front and winning who is clearly the best at right on top of their game in terms of performances you will never inspire a younger generation & in doing so make them hungry to be as good (or even half as good as the greats). Same thing happens in other sports Beckham in football, Hendry in snooker, Sampras in tennis without there being such shining stars and brining in the £££'s from sponsors & encouraging younger people to train harder & better I don't think you can grow your sport as well.

There is also the other areas to consider & that is what her competitors do to beat her. She is obviously a talent but she is a human and can be beaten, if it means others have to train as hard as her or use a tactic to beat her. We have seen the same in recent months with Sky & people not happy at their tactics but teams are learning how to beat & overcome the sky train and we are starting to see that they do have weakness's. You could say the same of HTC a few years ago but over time people figured it out & Cav did not always get his own way.

Of course the above is my own opinion & views and I understand others views also but I do not see the dominance of one rider as a barrier but more of a challenge to others.

Le Commentateur

Tom Butcher wrote:

Above The Cows wrote:

Good points. She is awesome but she has even less competition these days it seems. I remember one of the most fantastic mountain stages of any race I ever saw was a duel she had with Pooley at the Giro Donne, 2011 I think it was, Marianne would capitalize on her increased weight to pull out a gap to Pooley on the downhills and then Pooley would doggedly reel her back in and then attack her. Marianne finally got it in a sprint for the line. It was an epic duel of two different types of cyclists playing to their strengths.

Sounds like a great race. Pooley is one who could challenge her on some parcours but she does lack a bit in bike handling - she's a relatively poor descender and not as comfortable in the bunch as she could be - probably in part because she came to the sport late. Such a shame Cooke's peak was relatively short lived - I think she is another one that at her best could have given Vos a race.

In those kinds of stages all Vos has to do is stay on Pooley's wheel (or near it) until the top of a 10km climb then she'll turn the tables on the descent and win. Watch the 2010 and 2011 Giro Donnes and you'll see what I mean. Pooley's got better at going downhill but will never equal the apparently calm focus that Vos has.