Marianne Vos returns to racing at Veenendaal-Veenendaal after COVID-19
Marianne Vos will return to the peloton on Friday on the Dutch race Veenendaal-Veenendaal Basic Ladies, with the Jumbo-Visma rider rebooting her street season on house soil as she traces up at a race begin line for the primary time in almost seven weeks.
Vos hasn’t raced since early April, as a constructive COVID-19 take a look at put her on the sidelines earlier than Paris-Roubaix. She is going to return amongst an all Dutch Jumb-Visma line-up at a uncommon occasion on the calendar that the skilled 35-year-old bike owner has but to compete in.
“I am very curious in regards to the race,” Vos stated of Veenendaal-Veenendaal in a staff assertion. “I feel it is good to journey a race within the Netherlands once more. The races are scattered around the globe to the purpose that this does not occur each week anymore.
“The entire staff is trying ahead to Friday. We will certainly attempt to assault and go for the victory.”
The 139.9 km occasion is operating its second girls’s version, with a primary in 2018 earlier than it was absent from the calendar till this 12 months. It can play out on native laps, with sections on the Grebbeberg, the Paardenveld and the Amerongse Berg.
On the 1.1 labeled Veenendaal-Veenendaal, which was gained by Annemiek van Vleuten in 2018, the three WorldTour groups of Jumbo-Visma, Liv Racing Xstra and UAE Group ADQ will line up in opposition to Ladies’s Continental Groups and quite a lot of growth squads.
“The race has a great discipline of individuals, with a mixture of World Tour groups and plenty of Dutch groups,” stated Vos. “It additionally implies that Veenendaal-Veenendaal performs a job in creating expertise within the Netherlands.”
It can additionally play a job in rebooting Vos’ street season. She had already made a late begin earlier than catching COVID-19, not returning to the fray till Strade Bianche in March, following her World Championship profitable cyclo-cross season.
Vos then got here second in Gent-Wevelgem and raced the Tour of Flanders at the beginning of April. Paris-Roubaix, the place she got here second in 2021, was anticipated to be subsequent on her calendar.
Vos stated on the eve of the race: “I am match, I am actually trying ahead to it, the tyre pressures have been examined extensively, and we’re nicely ready as a staff.”
Nevertheless then on the morning of the occasion, which was a key goal for the rider, she examined constructive to COVID-19 and needed to pull out. After that it took longer than initially anticipated earlier than she was again on the street.
“On the time once I needed to withdraw from Roubaix, I had no signs but,” Vos stated in an interview with Biking Weekly. “I then did develop some signs however I wasn’t that sick – throat soreness and a persistent chilly principally. But it surely lingered. The second I picked up the bike once more, I seen that when it got here to endurance particularly, it actually had an influence.
Vos will make her return alongside Jip van den Bos, Aafke Soet, Riejanne Markus, Karlijn Swinkels and Teuntje Beekhuis.
