"Bob LeDrew" (bobledrew1)
12/31/2014 at 12:37 • Filed to: bikelopnik, marianne vos, uci, giro d'italia, vuelta a espana, tour de france, pro cycling, uci protour
0
0|
"Bob LeDrew" (bobledrew1)
12/31/2014 at 12:37 • Filed to: bikelopnik, marianne vos, uci, giro d'italia, vuelta a espana, tour de france, pro cycling, uci protour | 0
| 0 |
Women's cycling, like the majority of women's sports, is overshadowed by the male equivalent. The !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! is the 800-pound gorilla when it comes to media, even in the post-Lance era. Road geeks may delve deeper, into the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! , and many other races.
But I don't think there's anyone in men's professional cycling who's like !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Look at her achievements. She rides on the road, she rides on the track, and she does cyclocross, which for Jalops is Rallycross on two wheels and one person-power engines. And she is in the top rank of EACH of these disciplines. She's been the Dutch Sportswoman of the Year 3 times, and has a four-year streak going as Cycling News's female rider of the year.
She's simply utterly dominant. Imagine if a driver won an Indycar, F1, and sprint-car championship in the same year. That kind of dominance. A cynic might argue that there's not enough depth in women's cycling, making Vos's performance less remarkable. But I don't buy that. And I don't think there's been a male cyclist since Eddy Merckx who occupies the position she does.
For a teensy taste of her ability to dominate her opponents, watch these excerpts from a December 26 cyclocross race in Belgium:
If you're looking for a new sport to follow in 2015, you might think about cyclocross. And those women are damned impressive.