World champion to ride ten races to build up to title defence
World cyclocross champion Marianne Vos (Nederland Bloeit) has announced a ten-race list of cyclocross races that she is to compete in this year. The 23-year-old is starting her winter offroad season late this time around; this is due in part to the long road season she rode this year, but also due to her competing in the Melbourne track World Cup in an effort to qualify for the Olympic Games in London, 2012.
Vos will be riding her first race at the Scheldecross in Antwerp, Belgium this coming Saturday (18th), followed the next day by the World Cup race in nearby Kalmthout. Last season she finished in second place in Kalmthout, behind Dutch champion Daphny Van Den Brand, who was on her way to capturing the overall World Cup title.
The following weekend, on December 26th, Vos will ride the World Cup race in Heusden-Zolder, Belgium, a race she won last year, followed by the Azencross on the 29th. On New Year’s Day she will be returning to another of last season’s victories at the GP Hotel Threeland in Luxembourg followed by the Fidea Cyclocross in Tervuren, Belgium the next day.
Vos will once again try to take her first Dutch driekleur at the National Championships on January 8th, where she will try to take the jersey from Van Den Brand, who has worn it in all years but one since 1998. From there she will ride the two remaining World Cup races, in Pontchateau, France and Hoogerheide, close to her home in the Netherlands, before attempting to take her fourth, and third successive, rainbow jersey in St-Wendel, Germany.
Marianne Vos’ cyclocross schedule 2010/11:
18 December – Scheldecross, Antwerpen (Bel)
19 December – World Cup, Kalmthout (Bel)
26 December – World Cup, Heusden – Zolder (Bel)
29 December – Azencross, Loenhout (Bel)
01 January – GP Hotel Threeland, Petange (Lux)
02 January – Fidea Cyclocross, Tervuren (Bel)
08 January – Netherlands National Championships, St-Michielsgestel (Ned)
16 January – World Cup, Pontchateau (Fra)
23 January – World Cup, Hoogerheide (Ned)
29/30 January – World Championships, St-Wendel (Ger)