Tokyo 2020 Olympics – Netherlands' Marianne Vos said it was a ‘mistake’ to allow Anna Kiesenhofer to breakaway

ByNiamh Lewis

Updated 25/07/2021 at 11:10 GMT

Marianne Vos says the Dutch team miscalculated and made a mistake in allowing Anna Kiesenhofer to attack earlier on in the race, and ended up in a scenario they hadn't thought of, which cost them a gold medal in the women's Olympic road race. Watch every unmissable moment live from Tokyo 2020 across Eurosport, Eurosport app and discovery+

Netherlands' Marianne Vos said it was a "mistake" to allow Anna Kiesenhofer to breakaway earlier on in the race, as the Dutch team could not catch the solo Austrian and sacrificed their chances to dominate the medals in the women's Olympic road race.

Anna Kiesenhofer soloed to a gold medal after a superb attack, while Dutchwoman Annemiek Van Vleuten settled for silver.

Marianne Vos, who finished fifth, said: "It was a breakaway and they got such a huge gap and we thought we would close in the final, but she was so strong to get such a huge gap it seemed impossible.

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"It's nice that Annemiek took silver but we were aiming for gold and silver is today all we could do. Looking back of course [it was a mistake].

"I bet it's easy after the race to say it was a mistake. You try to make the calculations and it's a small team so it's not easy to make the right decisions and we didn't think Kiesenhofer would be so strong but she had a really strong ride."

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The Dutch team have individually dominated racing in recent years, and as a collective were favourites to win, but Vos says it was a "miscalculation" which left them falling short.

"We had different scenarios, this was a scenario we didn't think of with the breakaway and after when we think it's a miscalculation we miss our strength and in the end Annemiek did a great job to take second," she said.

Former Team GB cyclist and Eurosport pundit Joanna Rowsell-Shand said the lack of a designated team leader was where it went wrong for the Dutch team: "All four riders are fantastic riders and big pro wins already this year.

"It seems like there wasn't a clear designated leader... if they had [decided one] they could have used the other three rider to make that chase but none of them wanted to do that work because they all believed they could win the race.

"So you had four leaders rather than one leader and three domestiques or workers. So that was a mistake in going into the race and not having a clear leader."

Meanwhile Bradley Wiggins said the Dutch team left it too late: "When you're that strong as a unit, you need to execute it much better."

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