Marianne Vos fought until the bitter end, but could not deliver a top classification on the extremely tough world championship cyclo-cross in Valkenburg. Our 7-times-world champion finished at the 18th place on Saturday noon. Sanne Cant took the rainbow jersey.

“Of course, I had some doubts which were confirmed today”, says Marianne. “On this course, it all came down to being in form which was insufficient. This already became clear at the beginning of the race when a couple of riders immediately created a gap.  I was hoping for a small miracle but it was not meant to be.”

Marianne suffered the past month from a persistent cold, resulting in less cyclo-crosses than planned.  She only started to recover in the 2nd half of January and returned to cyclo-cross last week in the world cup race in Hoogerheide where she finished 4th. The worlds were her 2nd cross. “I didn’t lose on technic, but on the running zones and the parts uphill.”

Yara Kastelijn
Earlier in the day, Yara Kastelijn competed in the U23 category of the world championship. She did not make it beyond the  29th place, especially due to an unlucky start. “I ended up in the fences which caused material problems. It took some time to get to the pit stop.” Yara felt very frustrated. “I felt very well all week and had hoped for a good performance.”