Marianne Vos will return to the peloton on Friday on the Dutch race Veenendaal-Veenendaal Traditional Girls, with the Jumbo-Visma rider rebooting her highway season on house soil as she traces up at a race begin line for the primary time in practically seven weeks.
Vos hasn’t raced since early April, as a optimistic 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 workforce assertion. “I believe it is good to trip a race within the Netherlands once more. The races are scattered all over the world to the purpose that this does not occur each week anymore.
“The entire workforce is wanting ahead to Friday. We will certainly attempt to assault and go for the victory.”
The 139.9 km occasion is working its second girls’s version, with a primary in 2018 earlier than it was absent from the calendar till this 12 months. It’ll play out on native laps, with sections on the Grebbeberg, the Paardenveld and the Amerongse Berg.
On the 1.1 categorised Veenendaal-Veenendaal, which was received by Annemiek van Vleuten in 2018, the three WorldTour groups of Jumbo-Visma, Liv Racing Xstra and UAE Crew ADQ will line up in opposition to Girls’s Continental Groups and quite a few growth squads.
“The race has discipline of individuals, with a mixture of World Tour groups and lots of Dutch groups,” stated Vos. “It additionally signifies that Veenendaal-Veenendaal performs a job in growing expertise within the Netherlands.”
It’ll additionally play a job in rebooting Vos’ highway 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 successful cyclo-cross season.
Vos then got here second in Gent-Wevelgem and raced the Tour of Flanders in 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 wanting ahead to it, the tyre pressures have been examined extensively, and we’re properly ready as a workforce.”
Nevertheless then on the morning of the occasion, which was a key goal for the rider, she examined optimistic to COVID-19 and needed to pull out. After that it took longer than initially anticipated earlier than she was again on the highway.
“On the time after 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. However it lingered. The second I picked up the bike once more, I observed that when it got here to endurance particularly, it actually had an impression.
Vos will make her return alongside Jip van den Bos, Aafke Soet, Riejanne Markus, Karlijn Swinkels and Teuntje Beekhuis.
