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Leontien van Moorsel (Netherlands)
Road cycling

Leontien van Moorsel
Leontien van Moorsel
Fred Ernst / Reuters

 
Since 1990, two people have dominated women's road cycling at the World Championships — Jeannie Longo-Ciprelli and Leontien van Moorsel. Between them, they have won eight of the 15 world titles. Van Moorsel owns four.

She won back-to-back World Championships in the time trial in 1998 and 1999, marking the second time she had managed it. However, a lot happened between the glory days. After accomplishing her first back-to-back in 1992 and 1993, she spent two years in retirement with health problems and three more climbing back to the top.

Van Moorsel actually won her first world title on the track, in a 1990 pursuit race. She pronounced herself a road racer the next year and immediately followed with the 1991 world title. After an Olympic year in 1992, she won the second world championship the same year she won her fourth Dutch national title in five seasons.

When van Moorsel returned to the top in the time trial in 1998, she narrowly missed matching Longo-Ciprelli's 1995 double victory at the World Championships by finishing second in the road race.

Now, after winning almost 20 events last year, she goes for the one title she lacks — Olympic champion. But the surprise is, she's trying to do it on the track, not the road, in the women's individual pursuit.

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