Marianne Vos

Marianne Vos (born 13 May 1987) is a Dutch multi-discipline cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Women's WorldTeam.

After winning a junior European and World Championship in road racing, she continued her success in senior cycling by becoming World Champion in cyclo-cross and road racing at the age of 19.

In 2002, she won two national championships and finished second in another.

She became Dutch mountain biking champion and won the national junior road race, while she finished second in the Dutch time trial championship behind Roxane Knetemann.

At the time trial championships she again finished second, this time behind Maxime Groenewegen while 2002 champion Roxane Knetemann finished fourth.

In 2003 Vos successfully defended her national junior mountain bike title.

Vos excelled in cyclo-cross for the first time in 2004 when she won her first international race in Gieten, beating Birgit Hollmann and Arenda Grimberg.

She finished third in the Dutch junior road race and time trial, unable to beat Ellen van Dijk who won both events.

Continuing her cyclo-cross season she added wins in Surhuisterveen and Pijnacker–Nootdorp.

In the last she beat Hanka Kupfernagel and Daphny van den Brand.

For the third straight time she became Dutch junior champion in mountain biking before heading to Verona for the junior road world championship.

Aged 17 and a first-year junior, Vos broke away in the final of five laps on the climb.

She stayed clear and became world champion.

At the end of 2004 Vos was elected Sport FM Sportswoman of the year 2004.

As junior world champion Vos claimed her first Dutch junior national road title in front of 2004 champion Ellen van Dijk.

Van Dijk was able to defend her time trial title successfully before Maxime Groenewegen, while Vos finished third again.

Participating as a senior at the Dutch cyclo-cross championship Vos finished second behind Daphny van den Brand.

She then won her fourth Dutch junior mountain bike title, before winning a junior World Cup meeting in Houffalize.

She finished fourth at the world junior cyclo-cross championship and won a race held in Heeswijk a week later.

From then on Vos occasionally took part in senior road races.

One was the Omloop van Borsele which she won by beating Adrie Visser.

Including Vos's world championship in 2004 the Netherlands had won the last three editions of the junior championship (the others being Loes Markerink in 2002 and Suzanne de Goede in 2003).

Vos's goal was to add a fourth title by defending her title in Salzburg, but she finished second behind Denmark's Mie Bekker Lacota.

Vos competed in cyclo-cross again.

Six weeks after her silver medal in Salzburg she won in Harderwijk and Suameer.

Her next aim was the European cyclo-cross championship in Pontchâteau, France.

She started in the elite field and was expected to assist Daphny van den Brand but instead beat the favourites, including van den Brand who won silver.

She is a 3 times World Road Race Champion – in 2006, 2012 and 2013 – and 8 times World Cyclo-cross Champion – in 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2022.

Vos added track racing World Championships when she won the points race in 2008 and the scratch race in 2011.

At the 2008 Summer Olympics, she won the gold medal in the points race; at the 2012 Summer Olympics, gold in the women's road race.

She has 24 races at the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup, and claimed the first place overall in the 2018–19 season.

Vos was a founding member of Le Tour Entier, which campaigned for a Women's Tour de France and improvements to women's cycling generally.

Vos has drawn comparison to Eddy Merckx as being "the finest cyclist of [her] generation".

Marianne Vos was born in 's-Hertogenbosch, North Brabant and lives in the small village of Babyloniënbroek.

She started her career when she was six years old after watching her older brother who was already a cyclist.

At first she trained with her brother's team as she was not allowed to participate in races; during the winter she started training in cyclo-cross as well.

When she was eight, she was able to ride races.

Vos also participated in speed skating and inline speed skating.

At 14 she replaced inline skating with mountain biking.

She has multiple wins at the Giro Donne, Holland Ladies Tour, Ladies Tour of Norway, La Flèche Wallonne, Ronde van Drenthe, Trofeo Alfredo Binda-Comune di Cittiglio, Emakumeen Euskal Bira and GP de Plouay – Bretagne; also she ranked first in points in the UCI Women's Road World Cup five times and in the 2019 UCI Women's World Tour.