Marianne Vos finished second in the third stage of the Tour de France for Women. The 36-year-old rider from Babyloniënbroek was beaten in the mass sprint by Lorena Wiebes on Tuesday and accepted that the European champion was faster. “If you haven’t really done much wrong and there is one better, you can be somewhat satisfied with that,” she says to NOS .
The riders rode a 147.2 kilometer ride through the Dordogne. “I had a fantastic lead-out with Anna Henderson,” says Vos about the sprint preparation. “That put me in a perfect position to start the sprint. Although I immediately noticed that Wiebes passed me with more speed, and then you know it will be difficult. The only thing you can do is keep pedaling until the line.”
Vos won two stages in the Tour last year and wore the leader’s yellow jersey for several days. “On the one hand, I can look back on a good result, although of course you always go for the highest achievable,” she says. “Winning a Tour stage is not easy. It remains the biggest cycling event of the season. Now it is important to recover well. Hopefully we can continue to compete for a victory.”