Annemiek van Vleuten scourged the peloton on Saturday in the Tour de Femmes. Movistar’s Dutchman attacked on the first climb, after which the majority of the peloton quickly fell behind. Amongst them Marianne Voswho congratulated Van Vleuten afterwards on her masterful performance, but also let us know that he feared the time limit: ‘Driven in a fan so as not to run out of time.’
Vos finished 49th at more than 24 (!) minutes from Van Vleuten. She lost the yellow jersey. She is, however, assured of the green jersey when she finishes the final day. With the two stage wins of the past week, Vos can therefore speak of an extremely successful Tour. About the stage she says: ‘It was full house to the foot of the first ascent. From there it was immediately driven at full speed.’
Due to the furious pace, Vos didn’t notice much about the course of the race. ‘I was asked: did you see anything? But I didn’t see anything…’, she continues her conversation with the NOS. ‘In the beginning I did get through some things through communication, but I mainly tried to find my pace and was happy that it worked to some extent. My teammates set the pace and we rode to the finish in a good group.’
Fox spoke before the seventh stage still hoped that she wanted to defend the yellow. So she didn’t get around to that at all. ‘When you see the differences, it is very clear…’ Responsible for those differences: Van Vleuten. ‘I got a bit of it along the way, but here at the finish it was made completely clear.’ What makes Van Vleuten climb so much better than the other riders? ‘I have no idea, she drives something, quite a bit faster than the rest’, Vos corrects himself. “She is very strong and has such a big engine. She can drive high power for so long. There is clearly no one capable of imitating her’, concludes Vos.
Video: Vos congratulates Van Vleuten
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