What Makes a Champion Tick? A Q&A with Marianne Vos

There are very few podiums Dutch professional cyclist Marianne Vos hasn't stood atop, be it road racing, mountain biking, cyclo-cross or the track. This summer, the three-time world champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist—well, all-around badass seems most apropos—is in a new position for the first time in her prolific career: watching from behind the barriers, a fan as it were, sidelined by nagging injuries.

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ACTIVE.com caught up with Vos between a trip to Italy to cheer on the Giro Rosa, and the second running of La Course, a one-day women's road race held on the final day of the Tour de France.

ACTIVE.com: Is it hard watching these races from the sidelines this year?

Marianne Vos: Yes, actually. I'm getting a bit better, so my training rides go better. When you're not feeling good enough, it's easier to say, 'OK let them race, I need to get fit first.' But now I am getting a bit better, and it's getting harder to watch. Of course, it's always nice to visit and catch up with other riders and with the team, but I'm missing it.

ACTIVE.com: Have you set a date for your return, or are you just taking it slowly?

MV: That's actually the last thing I am doing, because I targeted dates twice before this season; first after my hamstring injury, and then after my rib fracture (Vos suffered a hamstring injury at the 2015 Cyclocross World Championships in January, then broke a rib in a crash while previewing the course at the Haiming mountain bike race in Austria). Obviously that didn't really work out, and then I had to take a longer break to recover fully. I hope to still race this season, but I don't want to rush my buildup and training. If not this season, then I will be back for the next one. Ed. note: Vos' team, Rabobank-Liv, announced this week that she will not return to racing this year.

ACTIVE.com: You've said before that when your name is atop the leaderboard at so many races for so many years, you worry it hurts the perception of parity in women's cycling. Now that you've been on the other side for the past few months watching the women's field, what do you think of the competition level?

MV: Well, I've followed all the races, and it has been an interesting season with so many different winners. The field definitely has more depth than a few years ago, and this makes for better racing, as well. The teams are more balanced, so that's why you see different winners in the Giro stage races, in sprints, and I think it is a good evolution.

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ACTIVE.com: Do you think women's cycling right now is stronger than ever before?

MV: Yes, definitely. The top [performers have] always been good—the best athletes in every sport are the best for a reason. So it's not that it wasn't at a high level at the top, but the depth in the field is now way bigger and makes for better racing. It's more interesting to watch, more interesting for fans and more interesting for sponsors. I think we entered this phase maybe a few years ago, and it is on an upward [trajectory]. Of course, there is still progress to be made, and it is still sometimes a struggle, but I see a lot of positive notes at the moment. I'm looking into a bright future of women's cycling.

ACTIVE.com: You were one of the key drivers behind La Course becoming a reality. But by the same token, is it frustrating to see a classic stage race like the Giro Rosa get less attention than a one-off event such as this?

MV: Yes, of course, but this is what women's cycling has to go through. It's one of the steps we have to take. The calendar has to be more balanced. For example, the Giro Rosa is now in a nice month [July], but it is at the same time as the Tour [de France]. It doesn't matter in Italy because the attention is there, the media is there: In Italy, it is big. It is a fantastic race to race; for an insider, it's the biggest stage race there is, but outside of that, nobody knows it. It's something that needs to change, and UCI [Union Cycliste Internationale] is working on it.

ACTIVE.com: La Course actually couldn't have expanded to a stage race with the schedule as it is currently, right?

MV: No, and everybody is asking me if I'm angry about it. No, I am not angry. This [La Course] was an opportunity, a free weekend, and they gave us the chance to show women's cycling to the world on the Champs-Elysees, in one of the most iconic places for cycling, during the Tour, during one of the biggest sporting events in the world. And, of course, it would be fantastic to have a bigger stage race like the Tour de France or even in the Tour de France as in the past, but it would also be a shame if the Giro were to disappear. So there are some conflicts that you have to look into. Teams are also much smaller than men's teams, and they have to be prepared for an update in the calendar, as well. This kind of change is not a step that you take in one year, or only by one organization, because it will harm the sport. Maybe it will be good for a year, but you have to look for a longer future.

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ACTIVE.com: So teams would need to expand from their current rosters to support La Course as a stage race?

MV: Probably. We have small teams racing only one calendar, and men's teams are twice as big as a women's team and have more specialists. Most of the girls are racing in the spring—they do the classics, they do the tours and then the same teams have to perform at Worlds as well. This has something to do of course with the depth in teams and how big the bunch is, as well. This is changing, but I don't think you should focus on trying to get it done in a year, but more like four or five years to get used to it, to change the calendar, to change the teams and the way things are organized. It will be done. There are opportunities, I am sure of it.

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ACTIVE.com: Granted you weren't sipping a glass of champagne, but it must have still been a pretty amazing feeling to ride down the Champs-Elysees in the first edition of La Course.

MV: Yes, but it wasn't only the win that was so great. You really felt that the bunch wanted to make something of that day. Everybody was excited and looking forward to racing. There were only enough places for six riders on a team, so just to ride on the Champs-Elysees was a battle. It was big even though it was the inaugural one, and everybody was racing and trying to make it something special. I think everybody enjoyed it—well, maybe they enjoyed everything but the bunch sprint in the end. That's something you don't expect to see on the Champs-Elysees!

ACTIVE.com: You've been out several months now due to injury. Is this the longest layoff of your career?

MV: Yes, definitely. I've had some minor injuries and crashes; I've been out maybe for a couple of weeks or months, but not [this] long. It's difficult, it is something new. First you try to fight it and not accept it, but, well, eventually I had to accept it. And now I think, well I've been lucky since juniors, really, since 2004 I hadn't had something big happen and I've raced at the top level. So for me, I see it as a good opportunity to look back at how grateful I am for all these years on the highest level, and now I just want to come back and be fit and 100-percent healthy again to get back to where I was.

ACTIVE.com: Do you think spending this time away from the sport will change your approach at all?

MV: It helps, actually—well, first it frustrates a little bit. And?then you accept it, and you start to feel how much you miss it and how much you love the sport. Stepping back from it makes you feel the passion for it even more.

ACTIVE.com: Speaking of passion, I know you're very passionate about growing cycling among women. Why do you think women seem to have been slower to adopt the sport? It's certainly more intimidating than, say, grabbing a pair of shoes and going for a run.

MV: That's true, and there's the mechanical element, there is the side of navigation and the chance of getting lost. And it's a hard sport, you suffer, and it is not really feminine to suffer, to get dirty and to go across mountains and ride through all weather conditions. But it doesn't mean that girls can't cycle and ride a bike fast or far.

ACTIVE.com: I'm always surprised when I go out for a group ride with other women, and it seems like we spend a lot of time apologizing. 'I'm sorry I'm not faster,' or 'I'm sorry if I'm slowing you down.' Maybe it's a lack of confidence, but we come in already apologizing for what we think we lack. Have you noticed that women approach the sport differently?

MV: Yes, totally differently. I think men are more inclined to be the opposite, to think they're better than they are. They're always riding in the clothes of the pro rider, they feel they're [Fabian] Cancellara or Tony Martin or maybe [Alberto] Contador or something. And women always think, "Well, I'm not fast, I'm not good, I don't look nice in these clothes, what if I get lost, what if I get a flat tire—what happens then?" It's always doubts, and there are so many elements that keep girls off the bike because they hesitate and they have doubts about themselves. That's what I want to try to say: Just go out, have fun together, maybe try to find some others to go together because there's a difference sometimes in that part, too.

Men like the competition—well, I can say I like the competition, as well—but a lot of women are more in it for the social part and only a small part is competition. And men, I don't know what it is? If they grab a bike, they want to compete and win or drop the others in the group. It is a different experience with girls, and that's why there are a lot of initiatives all across the world to try and get women on the bike and get rid of the barriers they have to [break through] at first. Once they take the first step and have done some rides, maybe they'll start to get the feeling, 'Hey, I'm actually getting better; I like this; I like the freedom; I know some roads around my house, and I have some friends," and then when you have made that first step, then you're there. Then you have the fire and you never lose that cycling passion.

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ACTIVE.com: It seems like even the bicycle industry itself is catching up, maybe even moving away from that "shrink it and pink it" mentality. It was a big deal when Giant came out with the Envie, which you helped design.

MV: Yeah, the women's market was led by men, and that is a difficult thing. There have been changes in the market for sure, and it's good to see you can be on a really nice, fast, good-looking bike with a feminine touch, but it doesn't have to be pink and have flowers all over it.

ACTIVE.com: Your first bike was an old green Mercier, and you started racing around age 8. Looking back on your career, what would you tell 8-year-old Marianne Vos, knowing what you know now?

MV: Well, I don't really regret anything. But at that moment, at age 8, I had no idea I could become a pro cyclist. All the riders were men, and I just liked to ride my bike. People were saying I had some talent, so maybe I just needed to believe it, but I wasn't really thinking about it like that. I wanted to be the best at that moment and not look into the future. But that passion is the thing, that's what is most important: not going for any future goals, or having any pressure, or racing for somebody else, just having fun. And that's the thing I'm trying to get back to, actually, so I think now at age 28, I am learning from where I was at 8. Maybe an even more important lesson than what I would say to the girl at the age of 8, is what I can learn from her back then.

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