When the Dutch team lined up for the women's road race on Sunday it was the last chance for the nation to claim a road cycling medal at the Paris Olympic Games. While Lorena Wiebes was the leading contender for the squad, the team had some extremely powerful options in their back pocket should the race not play into the sprinter’s hands.
After Wiebes and Tour de France winner Demi Vollering were caught behind when a crash split the peloton, the responsibility to salvage the medal hopes of the Netherlands fell on the capable and experienced shoulders of Marianne Vos, a rider who claimed her first gold medal on the track in Beijing in 2008 and then another in London during the road race in 2012.
Twelve years later as she headed toward the line in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower among a group of three, gold had already escaped her after a solo move from Kirsten Faulkner (USA) but there were still two medals to chase.
"It was really close, I think everybody felt the legs,” said Vos straight after the race in Paris. “You try to sprint but there's not much of a sprint left. You just try to get the pedal as fast as possible around."
It was tight, with just centimetres between Vos, fast-finishing Belgian favourite Lotte Kopecky and Blanka Vas (Hungary). However, the photo finish revealed that Vos had won the battle for silver, taking a third Olympic medal 16 years after her first.
"To get here and to make it into the Dutch team was quite a journey," said Vos. "The Paris Olympics are really special but being here, you want to race for a medal and for gold. Then, when you are in the lead, you have to make the best of the situation and when silver is the best you can do... it's very satisfying."
For a while though, a third gold had seemed within reach for the rider who had prepared so intently for her fifth Olympic Games. When the pace came off among the leading group of nine at about 23km to go and the gap to a closing Wiebes was shrinking, Lizzie Deignan (Great Britain) rejoined, along with teammate Anna Henderson, and then opted to accelerate right on by. Vas, who also raced in cross country mountain bike events in Paris and Tokyo, and Vos responded. Then as Deignan flagged the Dutch and Hungarian riders continued on with the move that the rider from Great Britain had sparked.
The gap had stretched beyond 30 seconds and it looked like gold could be decided in a sprint between the 22-year-old Vas and the 37-year-old Vos, but the chase from the group behind continued. Faulkner and Kopecky finally set off in pursuit alone at under ten kilometres to go and together they made the impression required to reel in the leading duo.
"I was in a good situation with Blanka,” said Vos in a release from trade team Visma-Lease a Bike. “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."
It then became clear to Vos that silver was the best she could hope for.
"You have to keep on riding, you [have] no other choice,” said Vos. “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."
