# Marianne Vos, Velo News's Cyclist of the Year.



## looigi (Nov 24, 2010)

Better looking than the alternative, Bradley Wiggins, IMO.

PezCyclingNews.com


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## Retro Grouch (Apr 30, 2002)

I agree...but her sideburns are too short.


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## Creakyknees (Sep 21, 2003)

Well deserved.


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## AlanE (Jan 22, 2002)

Marianne Vos is essentially the female Eddy Merckx. Already the greatest female cyclist of all time (IMO) with many years left in her career. I just hope she's clean.


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## LostViking (Jul 18, 2008)

Nice.

Must say, that beach looks pretty nice as well - well deserved R&R for a hard-working lady.


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## Local Hero (Jul 8, 2010)




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## Mike T. (Feb 3, 2004)

AlanE said:


> Already the greatest female cyclist of all time (IMO)


Read up on Beryl Burton.


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## wtfbbq (Apr 5, 2012)

Mike T. said:


> Read up on Beryl Burton.


Level of competition. I'll take Vos, thank you very much.


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## Mike T. (Feb 3, 2004)

wtfbbq said:


> Level of competition. I'll take Vos, thank you very much.


Beryl did her thing for 25+ years (almost 40 actually) on her own dime as no sponsorship was allowed. She pulled turnips and beets in the field every day and all day. She never got paid a penny for racing. There was no women's olympics. And her crowning glory (on top of her world championship golds in road and pursuit) not to mention 25+ years as the best women's time-trialer in the UK was catching and passing the men's record holder in the 12hr time trial to set a bigger distance than the men's record - a women's record that still stands today, 45 years later. And how many of today's women, Vos included, could top Beryl's 100 mile TT time of 3 hours 55 min 05 sec, set with NO aero equipment.

And we're 100% sure Beryl did it all without the d-word.


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## 32and3cross (Feb 28, 2005)

Beryl was great but I still say Vos comes out tops.



Mike T. said:


> Beryl did her thing for 25+ years (almost 40 actually) on her own dime as no sponsorship was allowed. She pulled turnips and beets in the field every day and all day. She never got paid a penny for racing. There was no women's olympics. And her crowning glory (on top of her world championship golds in road and pursuit) not to mention 25+ years as the best women's time-trialer in the UK was catching and passing the men's record holder in the 12hr time trial to set a bigger distance than the men's record - a women's record that still stands today, 45 years later. And how many of today's women, Vos included, could top Beryl's 100 mile TT time of 3 hours 55 min 05 sec, set with NO aero equipment.
> 
> And we're 100% sure Beryl did it all without the d-word.


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## Mike T. (Feb 3, 2004)

32and3cross said:


> Beryl was great but I still say Vos comes out tops.


I'm not saying she doesn't either as we have no way of comparing athletes from different generations. How would Beryl have done if she had all the amenities that Vos has had? And how would Vos have done back then if she had zero support? They were (is in Vos' case) both head & shoulders above the competition of their times.


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## 32and3cross (Feb 28, 2005)

Mike T. said:


> I'm not saying she doesn't either as we have no way of comparing athletes from different generations. How would Beryl have done if she had all the amenities that Vos has had? And how would Vos have done back then if she had zero support? They were (is in Vos' case) both head & shoulders above the competition of their times.


I think we agree, it would have been interesting to see how Beryl would have done in more mass start events, what was open to her was mainly timed events from what I understand. She was a massive talent and like you said with no support.

The great thing about Vos is her desire to compete and refusal to set limits on herself. Im sure Beryl had the same just not the outlets.


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## Mike T. (Feb 3, 2004)

32and3cross said:


> I think we agree, it would have been interesting to see how Beryl would have done in more mass start events, what was open to her was mainly timed events from what I understand. She was a massive talent and like you said with no support.
> The great thing about Vos is her desire to compete and refusal to set limits on herself. Im sure Beryl had the same just not the outlets.


Copy and paste from her Wiki -

"Burton won the women’s world road race championship in 1960 and 1967 and was runner-up in 1961. On the track, she specialised in the individual pursuit, winning world championship medals almost every year across three decades. She was world champion five times (1959, 1960, 1962, 1963 and 1966), silver-medallist three times (1961, 1964 and 1968), and winner of bronze in 1967, 1970 and 1973."

There was relatively little domestic (UK) women's road racing back then and her and her hubby Charlie had to drive themselves around the world to other women's road events and she had to be back at work Monday morning in northern UK picking in the fields.

Of course back in those days, the TT scene in the UK was massive (still is) as road racing was either banned, frowned on or low(er) key. The TT is where she could get plentiful races and shone at them. Many many times she was faster than the men racing on the same day.

Her biography is mind-boggling reading of how tough it was to compete at her level back then.


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## LostViking (Jul 18, 2008)

Mike T. said:


> Beryl did her thing for 25+ years (almost 40 actually) on her own dime as no sponsorship was allowed. She pulled turnips and beets in the field every day and all day. She never got paid a penny for racing. There was no women's olympics. And her crowning glory (on top of her world championship golds in road and pursuit) not to mention 25+ years as the best women's time-trialer in the UK was catching and passing the men's record holder in the 12hr time trial to set a bigger distance than the men's record - a women's record that still stands today, 45 years later. And how many of today's women, Vos included, could top Beryl's 100 mile TT time of 3 hours 55 min 05 sec, set with NO aero equipment.
> 
> And we're 100% sure Beryl did it all without the d-word.


Thanks for sharing that - any good resources where one could "read-up" on this?


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## Mike T. (Feb 3, 2004)

LostViking said:


> Thanks for sharing that - any good resources where one could "read-up" on this?


All I can suggest is Googling her and looking at Wikipedia. I have her book which is truly one of the best cycling books in my possession. I see it advertized in the Brit mag Cycling Weekly all the time and Amazon offers the book but the price there is astronomical.

Let me share the best part of her book with you.
It was the 12 hour TT championship in the UK. The men's field set off first with record holder Mike MacNamara last man off. Then the women's field set off with Beryl last woman off. They raced for over eleven and a half hours and Beryl had caught all the other women (and most of the men). She could see MacNamara up the road and she knew she was catching him too. She drew up behind him and didn't want to pass him as she knew he would be devastated. He was the men's competition record holder.

But finally she had no choice but to pass him. But what would she say? How would he react? She drew alongside. Both knew they were doing record rides. All she could think of was to offer Mike a Liquorice Allsort candy - a peace-offering; an ice-breaker.

"Liquorice Allsort Mac?" she asked, holding out her gift.

"Ta love" was Mac's reply as he took the candy from her. She left him behind. They both went on to set new records that day and for the first time ever (and since) the women's record was greater than the men's. Beryl's distance was 277.25 miles - greater than the men's by 0.73 miles. Legend. It's the equivalent of Vos catching Cancellara in a TT. 

I was born in her part of the country (30 miles away) and raced in the middle of her career but regrettably never got to see her.


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## PDex (Mar 23, 2004)

*Vos racing against the men.*

.....


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## 32and3cross (Feb 28, 2005)

PDex said:


> .....


Heard some good behind the scenes stories of her training with the guys at the Rabo team camp and being able to hang even when they went full out.

She has mentioned being interested in the racing some of the men's races but not sure the powers to be want that to happen.


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## foto (Feb 7, 2005)

that would be awesome


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## CalgaryDave (Jan 7, 2002)

Mike T. said:


> It was the 100 mile TT championship....
> 
> Beryl's distance was 277.25 miles



I'm confused. Can you please explain this?


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## vismitananda (Jan 16, 2011)

Couldn't agree more, she's one of the best female cyclist I knew. I like her since her velodrome days.


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## Mike T. (Feb 3, 2004)

CalgaryDave said:


> I'm confused. Can you please explain this?


Woops my mistake. :blush2: I know better than this. It's fixed.


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## Newnan3 (Jul 8, 2011)

She looks pretty attractive in that photo....


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## foto (Feb 7, 2005)

Newnan3 said:


> She looks pretty attractive in that photo....


a little too skinny...


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## Newnan3 (Jul 8, 2011)

foto said:


> a little too skinny...


Well I mean she's the top female racer in the world.... I wouldnt expect her to be either attractive or built like K.Kardashian.

I mean if I saw her at the mall i probably wouldnt try to roll up on her but if she was at a party and i was there I might try to talk to her....


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## atpjunkie (Mar 23, 2002)

track, cross, road TT
has WCs or Olympic Medals in all of them
@ present she is the best cyclist in the world
Was fun to see her win an Olympic gold in the rain.
I won a lovely bet
Never bet against a crosser in bad weather


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## vismitananda (Jan 16, 2011)

Speaking of her beauty, I like her. 

She has this typical Dutch prowess.


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## T0mi (Mar 2, 2011)

32and3cross said:


> She has mentioned being interested in the racing some of the men's races but not sure the powers to be want that to happen.


She asks for the same classics, using the same courses/distances, not to race with mens.


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## aclinjury (Sep 12, 2011)

Mike T. said:


> All I can suggest is Googling her and looking at Wikipedia. I have her book which is truly one of the best cycling books in my possession. I see it advertized in the Brit mag Cycling Weekly all the time and Amazon offers the book but the price there is astronomical.
> 
> Let me share the best part of her book with you.
> It was the 12 hour TT championship in the UK. The men's field set off first with record holder Mike MacNamara last man off. Then the women's field set off with Beryl last woman off. They raced for over eleven and a half hours and Beryl had caught all the other women (and most of the men). She could see MacNamara up the road and she knew she was catching him too. She drew up behind him and didn't want to pass him as she knew he would be devastated. He was the men's competition record holder.
> ...


Vos ain't catching Cancellara in an 1hr TT.

As for 12hr TT, I think that's just ridiculous because at that lenght in time, it's an ultra endurance event, and so a lot of the power/wattage coming from the guys will be totally gone by then. Would Beryl have beat Mac in an 1 hr TT though?


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## 32and3cross (Feb 28, 2005)

I knew it was coming, of course her physical attractiveness judged as well, because that is "so" relevant to the discussion at hand.


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## Mike T. (Feb 3, 2004)

aclinjury said:


> As for 12hr TT, I think that's just ridiculous because at that lenght in time, it's an ultra endurance event, and so a lot of the power/wattage coming from the guys will be totally gone by then. Would Beryl have beat Mac in an 1 hr TT though?


It's a fact that women, relatively speaking, do better at endurance events than men. Their strength and power is much less than men's. I don't remember about Mac but I'd guess he was a long-distance TT specialist (100, 12hr, 24hr) and so was Beryl too but she was women's TT champ a few times also But she wouldn't have gotten the better of the men short distance specialists; even though she would have gotten MUCH closer than the rest of the women.


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## 32and3cross (Feb 28, 2005)

Mike T. said:


> It's a fact that women, relatively speaking, do better at endurance events than men. Their strength and power is much less than men's. I don't remember about Mac but I'd guess he was a long-distance TT specialist (100, 12hr, 24hr) and so was Beryl too but she was women's TT champ a few times also But she wouldn't have gotten the better of the men short distance specialists; even though she would have gotten MUCH closer than the rest of the women.


Also add to the mix Vos is definatly NOT a TT specislist she can do well in them but not against the likes of Armstrong. So the discussion of how close Vos would be to Cancellara VS how close Byerl was to Mac is not quite the right fit. I don't know much about Mac but I doubt he was the best professional TTr of the day so you would really need to put Beryl up aginst that person and then you would only really have a gauge of how much better TTr Beryl was than Vos (I would guess quite alot better).


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## foto (Feb 7, 2005)

also too skinny...


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## spookyload (Jan 30, 2004)

PDex said:


> .....


 And she is on a single speed to boot.


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