For a champion who has more competitive spirit than blood in her veins, it's never easy to decide to skip a race, but this time Marianne Vos had no doubts: she won't fly to Rwanda.

The reasons for her decision were explained by national team coach Laurens ten Dam, who spoke to Dutch TV: "Marianne's father was operated on last week, but he is still in intensive care. He is doing well, given the circumstances, but these have been very tense and hectic days for Marianne. I called her yesterday morning, we discussed it, and we made this decision. Now she needs to be close to her family, which is much more important than participating in yet another UCI World Championship..."

Marianne, now 38 years old, has participated in 16 road world championship editions, winning the rainbow jersey three times in 2006, 2012, and 2013, and standing on the podium six times.

In her place, Ten Dam has called up Femke de Vries, a thirty-one-year-old teammate of Vos in the Visma | Lease a Bike team, fresh from a second-place finish overall at the Tour de l'Ardèche behind Monica Trinca Colonel. The Dutch women's team also includes Demi Vollering, Anna van der Breggen, Shirin van Anrooij, Pauliena Rooijakkers, and Yara Kastelijn, which means once again they will be the team to beat...