There’s a reason @mariannevosofficial is referred to as the ‘GOAT’ (greatest of all time) within cycling. The 35-year-old has been at the front of women’s racing for nearly twenty years across cyclocross and road and has racked up World and National titles, a gold medal at the London games and multiple wins at such prestigious races as the Giro Rosa, La Flèche Wallonne and more. Beyond her successes in the saddle, Vos is vocal when it comes to opportunities for improvement in women’s cycling. In 2014 she was part of a group of riders who instigated a petition to the ASO (owners of the Tour de France) to bring back a women’s Tour de France – a petition which attracted more than 90,000 signatures. The result was the introduction of La Course – first held as a one-day circuit race around the Champs Élysées in Paris on the final days of the men’s Tour – which remained a one-day event until this year, when @letourfemmes brought a multi-day women’s Tour de France to the calendar. “Women's cycling over those years has developed and got more and more professional,” Vos says of the years since that first edition of La Course. “It's a huge step that has been made since that time, and actually it was really nice to get around the table with ASO and have the first La Course already within a year after the petition.” When we spoke with Vos before the race, she said that targeting any particular stage at the Tour would be tricky: “Of course there may be stages that fit more, but I know from the past, and it will be the same in the future, that you never know. You can have your eye on one and then another day is by surprise a much better fit, so for us we just want to be sharp and focused from the first day. Of course, you need a little luck, and for me now it's most important to be as fit and good as possible at the start in Paris.” Vos won the second stage of the Tour and during stage 3 wore the maillot jaune for the first time in her career, adding to her many incredible palmarès. Photo: ASO / @thomas_maheux