Marianne Vos secured a silver medal at the Olympic road race in Paris in a close-fought sprint. The 37-year-old Dutch rider narrowly stayed ahead of Lotte Kopecky and Blanka Vas in the battle for second place, behind Kristen Faulkner who won gold.
Vos and Anna Henderson were part of a strong group in the final, which also included favourite Lotte Kopecky. With more than 10 kilometres to go, Vos and Vas went on an adventure together. The two seemed to have a comfortable lead on the chasers, but on the final climb of Montmartre, Faulkner and Kopecky managed to almost close the gap.
With three kilometres to go, Kopecky and Faulkner joined Vos and Vas. At this point, Faulkner saw her chance and immediately attacked. The American took a big gap and never looked back. In the sprint for second place, Vos claimed a narrow victory that inevitably left her with mixed emotions. “I have a double feeling about it. Of course I am happy with this medal, but we were going for gold. We didn’t succeed,” Vos admitted.
It was a third Olympic medal in five Olympic Games for Vos. In 2008, she won gold in the points race and four years later was crowned Olympic road champion. “I was in a good situation with Blanka. I felt Lotte and Kristen were getting closer and when they joined and Kristen attacked, I didn’t have the legs to react. Kristen is incredibly strong, you can’t give her a metre of space,” she said of this road race.
According to Vos, it became clear that silver was the highest possible and that became her second goal. “You have to keep on riding, you have no other choice. Lotte came out of the last corner first and then it’s full sprint as hard as you can. It was very close, but it was just enough for silver,” she concluded.
