Marianne Vos wins the final world cup in Nommay(Image credit: Photopress.be)
Marianne Vos in her world champion kit(Image credit: Bert Geerts/dcp-bertgeerts@xs4all.nl)
World champion Marianne Vos (Rabo) rides to the win(Image credit: Bert Geerts/dcp-bertgeerts@xs4all.nl)
The Nommay podium: Helen Wyman, Marianne Vos and Eva Lechner(Image credit: Photopress.be)
For the second time in her career Marianne Vos will seek a cyclo-cross world championship on home soil in Hoogerheide, Netherlands, and five years after winning her second of six world titles in Hoogerheide, the 26-year-old Dutchwoman thinks the parcours for Saturday afternoon's race is better than ever.
"I think the course became more beautiful," Vos told Omroep Brabant. "It has become a more complete 'cross course. It is also more compact, and that is much nicer for the spectators.
"For the riders the parcours is nicer and it's become fairer. To win here would absolutely be the best."
Heading into the women's world championship race on Saturday, Vos will toe the start line as the defending champion and will seek the sixth straight and seventh overall cyclo-cross title of her career. The USA's Katie Compton, winner of the UCI Cyclo-cross World Cup for the second straight year, is expected to provide the stiffest competition for Vos in her own bid to secure her first cyclo-cross world championship.
A large, vocal, partisan crowd will certainly be out in force in support of Vos, and she's looking to draw on her extensive world championship experience to remain focused.
"There is some extra pressure because a lot of people will travel to Hoogerheide especially for me, but on the other hand that is great motivation."
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