2011 World Championship Women's Road Race
 

Marianne Vos was robbed. I don't know if the video is available online. On the Universal Sports channel, in the one slow-mo replay they showed, it seemed pretty clear to me that Vos was boxed in--she even had to stop pedaling while Bronzini was pulling away. If Vos hadn't gotten boxed in, she would have won. I can see why she was so upset afterward--2nd place 5 years in a row. Ouch.

On the other hand, Vos has blown away the competition in the UCI rankings for the season. So I'm not going to feel too sorry for her.

I don't know about robbed, but you're right about what you saw. Interviewed after the race, Nicole Cooke (who finished fourth) described it exactly as you saw it. She had got onto Vos's wheel and then both she and Vos had to check their sprint when Vos got boxed in. Great timing from Bronzini, though.

Amazing, that Vos won in '06, then took second the past 5 years.
Consistency is nice, but I'd imagine the frustration of being so close, so often, causes nightmares.
Woulda, coulda, shoulda...

I watched last night and I didn't realize she got boxed because I was watching the third place girl. She didn't look like she held her line, and that forced Voss out too.

Vos has something in common with Jan Ullrich (TdF); a string of 2nd places.

man, sprinting is brutal! did you see the look on vos' face right after the finish? such a combination of heartbreak and anger, i really felt for her.

it's a tough sport. i almost cringe when the sprint starts b/c so many crashes have taken place there. (i just barely missed one myself in a race, once.)

good article in the n.y. times yesterday about the increased number of deaths in professional bike racing -- 10 since casartelli died -- and that doesn't include the thousands of injuries, some of which are permanent. (i'm currently recovering from a T12 vertebral compression fracture sustained in a 30 mph crash which, hopefully, will heal completely.)

i would like to have seen that slow-mo video of the final sprint a few times more. anyone know if it's online anywhere?

pic caption: "Robbie McEwen head butts"

i take back what i said about marianne vos being robbed. i got another look at the slo-mo video. it's really hard to tell exactly what happened b/c the one clip on the universal sports channel starts up right at the key moment, so it's hard to orient oneself, figure out who's who, and then it's over.

from what i could see, it's not clear whether vos was blocked or whether she was just squeezed by ina teutenberg and vos stopped pedaling instead of pushing her out of the way.