Sure, Lorena Wiebes Is Incredible. But She’s Still a Long Way off Marianne Vos

Watching Lorena Wiebes completely dominate the sprints in the sport leads to all sorts of superlatives, and they are well deserved.

She took back to back wins in the Tour de France Femmes in recent days, blitzing her rivals on both stages 1 and 2. Winning in yellow on Sunday increased her career tally in the race to seven stages, and on Monday she has her fourth career day in Tour yellow.

Wiebes is by far the best sprinter in the sport and, as she proved in the hilly finale on stage 1, she has a versatility which goes beyond that of many of her sprint rivals.

That’s why she won last year’s Milan-Sanremo Donne, as well as other more testing events.

When she wins, she often does so by several bike lengths. We aren’t talking photo finishes here, but rather wide angle lenses.

Wiebes is so good that rivals have to try to come up with all sorts of ideas to stop her reaching the line first.

And yet, notwithstanding all those wins and the margin of those successes, Wiebes still has a lot to do to compare to Marianne Vos.

In fact, there is quite a chance she will never equal her.

Big age gap blurs comparisons

There’s a risk that the current generation is automatically deemed better than those who came before. See all the arguments that Tadej Pogačar is already the greatest of all time, despite having a fraction of Eddy Merckx’s career wins.

What’s happening right now is by its nature more immediate than what happened a decade or more ago. Time confuses context, and memories fade.

The issue for Vos is that she is now 39 years of age, a dozen years older than Wiebes. Many of those watching the current peloton may not be familiar with what she has done, or may have forgotten it.

They may also compare Wiebes 2026 with Vos 2026, which is unfair when there is such a large age gap.

Athletic peaks tend to happen around 27 or 28 years of age, which is exactly where Wiebes is right now.

As for Vos, she’s already been a pro for two decades. Her career started with the Team DSB – Ballast Nedam team back in 2006 when she clocked up nine of the team’s ten wins that season.

She may have been only 19 then but she was an immediate success. Her tally included a stage of Emakumeen Bira, two stages plus the overall in the Tour Féminin en Limousin and the European under 23 championships.

That age gap makes things a little deceptive between herself and Wiebes. Nowadays Vos is very much seen as an outsider to win in sprints between them; she was third on Sunday’s stage to Wiebes’ first, and in last year’s Tour she finished as runner up in Wiebes’ two stage wins.

And yet, take a deeper look, and the quality of Vos’ performances plus the level she achieved is really something else.

A glittering haul

These days Wiebes is winning more regularly than anyone else. She has a stunning record with 133 victories racked up thus far.

That’s more than Pogačar in the men’s peloton, yet only half that of Vos, who has racked up a staggering 259 successes to date.

Vos has won three road world championship titles, placed second six times, was Olympic champion in 2012 and has a stunning 32 Giro d’Italia Femminile stages to her credit.

And while she is yet to win a stage of the Tour de France Femmes, that is partly due to her age and being past her athletic peak, and partly due to the face that the race only started in 2022.

Vos would almost certainly have clocked up multiple Tour stages if the race had debuted earlier in her career.

Any evaluation of her career should also consider the sheer range of her victories. Vos has shown very well in fast sprints, but she’s also been one of the best on more difficult terrain.

Consider her five Flèche Wallone Féminine titles, her two Amstel Gold successes, those world championship and Olympic wins.

She’s won on terrain that would have humbled Wiebes. For reference, the younger rider’s best performance on the Mur de Huy in Flèche Wallonne was 79th in 2025, her sole participation.

She’s also only ridden the elite world championships once, back in 2023, and was a non-finisher.

Wiebes is undoubtedly streets ahead of her rivals in any bunch kick. She’s got a dominance unmatched in the sport, with only Mark Cavendish in his heyday comparing in terms of the regularity and near-certainty of his wins.

At 27 she’s got many years more of victories ahead. This year’s she’s taken 16 road wins thus far, and will surely add many more to that.

But when she comes up against Vos in the sprints again in this Tour, it is worth remembering just what the latter has achieved.

Vos’ love of the sport has kept her racing until nearly 40 years of age. She’s slower than she used to be but don’t be fooled by that.

What she has done is so much more important than what she might yet do.

Wiebes is great; Vos is the GOAT.

We are lucky to see both racing at the same time.

Most career wins in women’s cycling

1. Marianne Vos (Netherlands) 259
2. Jeannie Longo (France) 182
3. Ina-Yoko Teutenberg (Germany) 152
4. Lorena Wiebes (Netherlands) 133
5. Kirsten Wild (Netherlands) 109