The professional cycling world patiently awaited the return of Marianne Vos while she took ten months off, struggling to recover from injuries and over training. After dominating the sport for some five years, her absence was an astounding, irreplaceable void in the women's peloton.
Her fans, teammates and rivals watched as she began what was dubbed her "comeback season" late this spring. She started slow, almost under the radar, but her trajectory has culminated with her first Women's WorldTour stage win at the Tour of California in May. She's still far from the fierce athlete of seasons past, but she has faith in herself, that she will once again be the world-dominant Marianne Vos that the cycling community craves to watch at races.
In an exclusive interview with Cyclingnews, the 12-time multiple-discipline world champion spoke about the ups and downs of her comeback and her realistic chances of defending the gold medal at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
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It seems long ago when a hamstring injury forced Vos to the sidelines at the Dutch national cyclo-cross championships at the beginning of January 2015, and then ended her six-year reign as cyclo-cross world champion. Her consistent display of strength over the years made it hard for anyone to suspect the seriousness of her injury or underlying health issues, at that time. But what started out as a typical muscle tear turned out to be much worse.
She briefly returned to road racing for two races in April and May. However, Rabo Liv announced last June that Vos would not return to road racing and that she had written off her 2015 goals. Vos later described her health problems and tired feelings as a sign of being over trained, and that her recovery process would be complicated. During that time, she maintained that she would return in 2016 with an eye on the Olympic Games in Rio. She took a cautious approach to her recovery; resting and paying close attention to her daily activities and diet.
"The process had its ups and downs," Vos told Cyclingnews in a phone interview. "The hard part was feeling that I was getting better, but then going down again, so I had those ups and downs. For me, that was pretty hard. But it was encouraging that there were improvements along the way, and I had faith, and I would try to do as best I could at the moment."
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