Dwars door Vlaanderen 2024: Marianne Vos beats Shirin van Anrooij in sprint, lands 'special' 250th career win

Marianne Vos admits she cannot believe how well she has started the 2024 season. The Dutchwoman won the Dwars door Vlaanderen on Wednesday, narrowly holding off Shirin van Anrooij in a sprint finish. It's already her second win of the campaign, and the 250th race victory of her career. She says that figure is a "number you don't dare to think about at the beginning of your career".

Visma-Lease a Bike rider Marianne Vos landed the 250th win of her glittering career after a superb finish at the Dwars door Vlaanderen.

The 36-year-old secured victory in a time of 3:18.39 after outsprinting Lidl-Trek's Shirin van Anrooij.

Letizia Paternoster (Liv AlUla Jayco) came in third place, as she was the best finisher in the group of four chasers who were a further 15 seconds behind.

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It is the first time Vos has won the race and may provide some cheer to Visma-Lease-a-Bike, who had earlier seen Wout van Aert crash out of the men's race, breaking his collarbone in the process.

"It's a number you don't dare to think about at the beginning of your career," she said of reaching the incredible milestone.

"Over the years you can make a lot of memories of different highs and lows and then this is definitely a very nice highlight."

Proceedings got underway to a drama-free start, perhaps down to some of the climbs being removed from the course after the race was neutralised due to a car accident.

However, once back underway, things eventually started to liven up, as it became clear that a sprint finish was in store.

Vos holds off Van Anrooij to clinch Dwars door Vlaanderen victory

Video credit: TNT Sports

The Lidl-Trek trio of Elisa Longo Borghini, Lucinda Brand and van Anrooij eventually decided to break away from the pack with around 30km of the 130km course remaining.

SD Worx-Protime duo Lotte Kopecky and Demi Vollering - who is to leave the team at the end of the season - tried to stick with them, but it was Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck), Vos, Paternoster and Emma Norsgaard (Movistar) who managed to eventually haul the leading bunch back in.

When Brand dropped away, the remaining sextet ultimately opened up a 30-second advantage on the peloton, and it was Vos and Van Anrooij who had the legs to out-pace their rivals over the final 12km.

A two-up sprint was the result, despite the best efforts for Longo Borghini to stick with her rivals, with Vos prevailing by a narrow margin as she landed her second victory of the season.

"It is always nice to win a race for the first time," she added. "At the beginning of spring, I didn't dare dream that I would start my season like this. The fact that I already have two victories now is definitely very special.

"Shirin is an incredibly strong rider and when she accelerates, you shouldn't hesitate too long.

"In the sprint I tried to catch her and then it's sprinting with everything you have left. Luckily it worked out well."

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