tour reporter
Marianne Vos sprints to stage victory in Rosheim and continues to wear the yellow jersey. But it will probably not play a role in the decision about the overall victory.
Passed through again Marianne Vos in Rosheim the procedure in the yellow jersey: climb onto the yellow podium and let yourself be celebrated, interview for the worldwide TV audience, answering questions for the electronic media, doping control and finally a press conference.
Vos has now completed this program five times since she started the 2nd stage of the Tour de France women won and took the yellow jersey. So far, however, she hasn’t had much leisure to let this time sink in in cycling’s most famous piece of clothing.
Vos can hardly process the emotions
To the daily questions about how it feels to be in the Maillot Jaune in the first Tour de France of women to drive through the French countryside for 33 years had changed Vos therefore prepared as a standard answer that all this is very special. Rather, it was not to be elicited from her until then.
“Honestly, there isn’t much time to reflect”she explained in Rosheim, after not only defending her yellow card on the 6th stage, but also driving to her second success of the day. “You have just enough time to eat and sleep and then prepare for the next stage.” The emotions, the size of the whole – you can’t process all that.
Of course white Vos about the meaning of Tour de France women for women’s cycling. The Dutchwoman, who is now 35 years old, fought for a long time to ensure that the OSA as the organizer of the Tour de France finally aligns the women with their own race under this name.
Stamped the race
And there’s no denying that it’s already a success. The spectator response is more than good, people make a pilgrimage to the start and finish locations to see the drivers up close.
With its influence, which is quite remarkable in France, the ASO also manages to bring the women’s tour to the inner cities and not to have it start from some supermarket parking lot in a suburb as is the case with other races. “Of course we know the big picture, the importance. You can feel the tension, the enthusiasm of the people around it.”said Vos. “But at the moment the focus is on the race.”
She has put her stamp on it over the past few days. That was also the case on the 6th stage. On paper it had looked like a day for breakaways. But the 14-strong leading group, in which Franziska Koch from Team DSM and Kathrin Hammes (EF Education-Tibco-SVB) also two German drivers were kept on a short leash. Which at least didn’t surprise Hammes from Freiburg: “I was already expecting that this would be a stage for Marianne. Being in the yellow jersey for so long is something you can’t do without.”
After Lorena Wiebes, the best sprinter in the field, was unable to intervene due to a fall on a descent, Vos confidently brought the final sprint to the finish in Rosheim. After that, she rolled well past the finish line to get a little rest. A long scream followed the brief moment of silence. “When everything works, when the puzzle fits together”said Vos, “It’s very, very satisfying.”
The grand finale follows this weekend
It’s quite possible that Vos soon get a little more time to think about the days in yellow and give that satisfaction more space. Of course she will stay in the race and she is also clearly in the lead in the points classification for the green jersey of the best sprinter. So there are still tasks to be completed. But at least she will probably no longer have to fulfill the duties of the woman in the yellow jersey after the 7th stage.
the Tour de France women is heading towards its grand finale at the weekend. Finally, there are two mountain stages through the Vosges, where the first winner of the new women’s tour is to be found. It will be another race from Saturday, said Vos in Rosheim. Now the climbing specialists and riders are challenged for the overall classification: “Of course I’ll try to recover as much as I can, but tomorrow we’ll see other names up front.”