Marianne Vos is leading the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift again. Her results in this race so far have been as follows: first, fifth, second and second. Every stage, she has been in contention for victory with the type of consistency that no other rider can match. At 38-years-old, she is still at the very pinnacle of her sport, at the height of her powers. And it has been this way for the last two decades.
In her career so far, Vos has amassed 258 race victories, including three world titles on the road and an Olympic gold medal. There is no one else across the entire sport who is comparable to the Dutchwoman – even her competitors recognise the gravity of her achievements.
After finishing ahead of Vos in the sprint finish to Poitiers on stage four of the Tour de France Femmes, Lorena Wiebes told the media: “She is really still the idol of women’s cycling. I have a lot of respect for Marianne in this way. It’s nice that such an icon of our sport wears the yellow jersey.”
The SD Worx-Protime rider may have beaten her older compatriot in a head-to-head sprinting battle, but Wiebes knows that even she, as the fastest woman in the world right now, can’t do what Vos does. This is a bike rider who can make it over climbs still with speed in her legs to finish things off, who can perform on the cyclo-cross field as well as on the tarmac, who can pull it out of the bag when it matters most, when the pressure is on and the world is watching.
It’s also a bike rider who despite having achieved so much already, is still motivated. Somehow, somewhere, Vos still wants to win as much as she did when she secured her first professional victory aged 19 – 19 years ago. The Dutchwoman says that the fire is still within her due to a pure, raw, simple love for the sport.
“It's just fantastic to be a part of this. I love cycling. I love riding my bike, and I really like the competition. I think the growth of women's cycling and all the changes we've seen in the last 20 years also gives me the motivation to keep going. Four years ago, we got a Tour de France and with how big this is with all the amazing crowds, it's not too difficult to stay motivated. It's just fantastic to be part of it. I'm very happy to be able to be here.”
It’s also a testament to Vos’s character that despite her achievements in the sport so far, she is still a formidable teammate. This has been evident in the collaboration between her and Pauline Ferrand-Prévot during 2025 so far; the pair have both sacrificed chances of their own results to help one another and are having one of the most successful seasons in the team’s history because of this. Vos believes that in the days to come, she will happily assist Ferrand-Prévot to try and achieve even more stage wins for Visma-Lease a Bike.
“We're also here with the goal to get Pauline into the best position [for the general classification]. Until now, she's doing really well, and the team is also doing a good job to keep her in a good position and keep her safe,” Vos explained after her second place on stage four. “That's also an aim and like I said, it's going to be a tough final tomorrow. But it’s not only about Lorena Wiebes.”
This is what makes Marianne Vos so good: she never loses her hunger. She may have been unable to challenge Wiebes in a mano-a-mano sprint in the Tour de France Femmes so far, but this doesn’t mean that the yellow jersey wearer will count herself out of the running. She will win with a teammate, she will try something new, she will never, ever give up. As Wiebes herself said, this is exactly what we should expect from the icon of women’s cycling.
