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The Karluks (also Qarluqs, Qarluks, Karluqs, Old Turkic: , Qarluq,^[1] Persian: خَلُّخ (Khallokh), Arabic قارلوق "Qarluq") were a prominent nomadic Turkic tribe residing in the regions of Kara-Irtysh (Black Irtysh) and the Tarbagatai Mountains west of the Altay Mountains in Central Asia. They were also known as the Gelolu (simplified Chinese: 葛逻禄; traditional Chinese: 葛邏祿; pinyin: Géluólù, customary phonetic: Gelu, Khololo, Khorlo or Harluut).

They were closely related to the Uyghurs. Karluks gave their name to the distinct Karluk group of the Turkic languages, which also includes the Uyghur, Uzbek and Ili Turki languages. The Karluk language is also known as Chagatai.^{[citation needed]}

Karluks were known as a coherent ethnic group with autonomous status within the Göktürk kaganate and the independent states of the Karluk Yabgu and Karakhanids, before being absorbed in the Chagatai Khanate of the Mongol empire.^{[citation needed]}

Etymology[link]

The most ancient reference to the etymology of the Karluk name is recorded in the Chinese dynastic history Book of Tang, which names Karluks as "Ko-lo-lu" and traces the name to the word "Karlik" (Turkic "snow piles"). "Kar" means "snow", as in the name of the Kar Sea. N. Aristov noted the river Kerlyk, a tributary of the Charysh River, proposing that the tribal name originated from the toponym with a Turkic meaning of "wild millet".^[2]

The reverse is equally possible; the toponyms were named after an ethnonym of the native people. Another version cites the homonym of the Karluk valley in Altai. The derivation of Karluk from Kara (Turkic "Great", "Northern", "black"^{[citation needed]}) is considered to be philologically impossible, and incompatible with the well-documented Arabic form of the ethnonym "Halluh".^{[citation needed]}

History[link]

Early history[link]

Asia in 600 AD, showing the location of the Karluk tribes.

The Karluks were a branch of the Turgesh or aboriginal Altaians.

The first Chinese reference to the Karluks (644 AD) labels them with a Manichaean attribute: Lion Karluks ("Shi-Gelolu", "shi" stands for Sogdian "lion"). The "lion" (Turkish: arslan) Karluks persisted up to the time of the Mongols.^[3]

In the Early Middle Age, organized as the Uch-Karluks (Three Karluks) union, composed of Karluks, Chigils, and Yagma tribes, they were members of the Göktürk Kaganate. After the split of the Kaganate around 600 into the Western and Eastern Kaganates, the Uch-Karluks remained in the Western Turkic Kaganate under a non-autonomous home rule, as the members of the five Tele (see: Tiele) tribes that did not receive autonomy: the Karluk, Yagma, Kipchak, Basmyl and Chuban.^{[citation needed]}

In 630 AD, the Aru-Kagan (Chinese Helu) of the Eastern Turkic Kaganate was captured by the Chinese. His heir apparent, the "lesser Khan" Khubo, escaped to Altai with a major part of the people and 30,000 soldiers. He conquered the Karluks in the west, the Kyrgyz in the north, and took the title Ichju Chebi Khan. The Karluks allied with the Tiele and their leaders the Uyghurs against the Turkic Kaganate, and participated in enthroning the victorious head of the Uyghur (Toquz Oghuz). After that, a smaller part of the Karluks joined the Uyghurs and settled in the Bogdo-Ola mountains in Mongolia, the larger part settled in the area between Altai and the eastern Tien Shan.^[4]

In 650 AD, at the time of their submission to the Chinese, the Karluks had three tribes: Meulo, Chjisy (Popou), and Tashili. On paper, the Karluk divisions received Chinese names as Chinese provinces, and their leaders received Chinese state titles. Later, the Karluks spread from the valley of the river Kerlyk along the Irtysh River in the western part of the Altay to beyond the Black Irtysh, Tarbagatai, and towards the Tien Shan.^[5]

By the year 665 The Karluk union was led by a former Uch-Karluk bey with the title Kül-Erkin, now titled "Yabgu" (prince), who had a powerful army. The Karluk vanguard left the Altay region and at the beginning of the 8th century reached the banks of the Amu Darya.^[6]

Famed for their woven carpets in the pre-Muslim era, they were considered a vassal state by the Tang Dynasty after the final conquest of the Transoxania regions by the Chinese around 744. The Karluk rose in rebellion against the Göktürk, then the dominant tribal confederation in the region, in about 745, and established a new tribal confederation with the Uygur and Basmyl tribes.^[7] They remained in the Chinese sphere of influence and an active participant in fighting the Muslim expansion into the area, up until their split from the Tang in 751. Chinese intervention in the affairs of Western Turkestan ceased after their defeat at the Battle of Talas in 751 by the Arab general Ziyad ibn Salih. The Arabs dislodged the Karluks from Fergana.

In 766, after they overran the Turgesh in Zhetysu, the Karluk tribes formed a Khanate under the rule of a Yabgu, occupied Suyab and transferred their capital there. By that time the bulk of the tribe had left the Altai, and the supremacy in Zhetysu passed to the Karluks. Their ruler with the title Yabgu is often mentioned in the Orkhon inscriptions.^[6] In Pahlavi texts one of the Karluk rulers of Tocharistan was called Yabbu-Hakan (Yabgu-Kagan).^[8] The fall of the Western Turkic Kaganate left Zhetysu in the possession of Turkic peoples, independent of either Arabs or Chinese.^[6]

In 822 the Uyghurs sent four Karluks as tribute to Tang dynasty China.^[9]

Culture[link]

The Karluks were hunters, nomadic herdsmen, and agriculturists. They settled in the countryside and in the cities, which were centered around trading posts along the caravan roads. The Karluks inherited a vast multi-ethnic region, whose diverse population was not much different from its rulers. Zhetysu was populated by the Turgesh, who were divided into two tribes, the Tukhshi and the Azes mentioned in the Orkhon inscriptions, the remnants of the Oghuz Turks whose main body had moved to the west, becoming the Shato Turks (i.e. "Steppe Turks"), and interspersed with the Sogdian colonies. The southern part of Zhetysu was occupied by the Yagma people (a branch of the Toquz Oghuz, the later Uyghur) who also held Kashgar. In the north and west lived the Kankalis. A separate significant division of the Karluks were the Chigils, a tribe that had detached from the Karluk. They resided around Issyk Kul.^[6]

The diverse population adhered to a spectrum of religious beliefs. The Karluks and the majority of the Turkic population professed Tengrianism, considered as shamanism and heathen by the Christians and Muslims. Chigils were Christians of the Nestorian denomination. The majority of the Toquz Oghuz, with their khan, were Manicheans, but there were also Christians, Buddhists and Muslims among them. The peaceful penetration of Muslim culture through commercial relations played a far more important role in their conversion than Muslim arms. The merchants were followed by missionaries of various creeds, including Nestorian Christians. Many Turkestan towns had Christian churches. The Turks held sacred the Qastek pass mountains, believing to be an abode of the deity. Each creed carried its script, resulting in a variety of used scripts, including Türkic runiform, Sogdian, Syriac, and later the Uygur.^[6] The Karluks had adopted and developed the Turkic literary language of Khoresm, established in Bukhara and Samarkand, which after Mongol conquest became known as the Chagatai language.^{[citation needed]}

Of all Turkic peoples, the Karluk were most open to the influence of Muslim culture. Yaqubi reported the conversion of the Karluk-yabgu to Islam under Caliph Mahdi (775–785), and by the tenth century, several towns to the east of Talas had mosques. Muslim culture had affected the general way of life of the Karluks.^[10]

During the next three centuries, the Karluk Yabgu state occupied a key position on the choice international trade route, fighting off mostly Turkic competitors to retain their prime position. Their biggest adversaries were Kangars in the north-west and Toquz Oghuz in the south-east, with a period of Samanid raids to Zhetysu in 840–894. But even in the heyday of the Karluk Yabgu state, parts of its domains were in the hands of the Toquz Oghuz, and later under Kyrgyz and Khitan control, increasing the ethnical, religious, and political diversity.^[11]

Kirghiz period[link]

Prior to the Kirghiz-Uyghur war of 829–840, the Kirghiz lived in the upper basin of the Yenisei River. Linguistically their language, together with the Altai language, belongs to a separate Kirghiz group of the Turkic language family. At that time they had an estimated population of 250,000 and an army of 50,000. Kirghiz victory in the war brought them to the Karluk door. They captured Tuva, Altai, a part of Dzungaria, and reached Kashgar. Allied with the Karluks against the Uygurs, in the 840s the Kirghiz started the occupation of that part of Zhetysu which is their present home. Karluk independence ended around 840. They fell from dominating the tribal association to a subordinate position. The Kirghiz remained a power in Zhetysu until their destruction by the Kara-Khitans in 924, when most of them evacuated from their center in Tuva back to the Minusinsk Depression,^[11] leaving the Karluks to predominate again in Zhetysu.

The position of the Karluk state, based on the rich Zhetysu cities, remained strong, despite the failures in wars in the beginning of the 9th century. Yabgu was enriched by profitable trade in slaves on the Syr-Darya slave markets, selling guards for the Abbasid Caliphs, and control over the transit road to China in the sector from Taraz to Issyk Kul. The Karluk position in Fergana, despite Arab attempts to expel them, became stronger.^[12]

The fall of the last Kagan with its capital in Ötüken, which dominated for three centuries, created a completely new geopolitical situation in all Central Asia. For the first time in three hundred years, the powerful center of authority that created opportunities for expansion or even existence of any state in Turkestan had finally disappeared. Henceforth, the Turkic tribes recognized only the high status of the clan that inherited the Kagan title, but never again his unifying authority. Several Muslim historians state that after the loss by the Uygurs of their power (840), the supreme authority among the Turkic tribes passed to the Karluk leaders. Connection with the Ashina clan, the ruling clan of the Turkic Kaganate, allowed the Karluk dynasty to dress their authority with legitimate attire, and, abandoning the old title Yabgu, to take on the new title of Kagan.^[13]

Karakhanid period[link]

Towards 940 the "heathen” Yagma from the southern border seized the Chu valley and the Karluk capital Balasagun. The Yagma ruler bore the title Bogra-khan (Camel Khan), very common among Karakhanids. The Yagma quickly proceeded to take control of all Karluk lands. In the tenth and twelfth centuries, the lands on both sides of the principal chain of the Tian Shan were united under the rule of the Karakhanid Ilek-khans (Khans of the Land) or simply Karakhanids (Great Khans). The Karakhanid state was divided into fiefs which soon became independent.^[14]

The Kara-Khanid Khanate was founded in the 10th century by Satuk, a Turkic convert to Islam. His son Musa made Islam a state religion in 960. The empire occupied modern northern Iran and parts of Central Asia. This region remained under Karakhanid (and for varying periods Seljuk and Kara-Khitan) control until 1206, when it became a Mongol vassal state. It remained an independent vassal until the Mongol invasion of 1221.

Khitan period[link]

In the beginning of the tenth century AD a Mongolic tribe, the Khitan (also spelled Khitay, Kidan, Kitan, Qidan, etc.), with an admixture of Mongols, founded a vast empire, stretching from the Pacific to Lake Baikal and the Tian Shan, displacing the Turkic population and replacing it with a Mongol population. The Khitan language is taken nowadays to be a strongly palatalized Mongolian dialect. Reportedly, the first Gurkhan professed the Manichaean religion.

Owing to its long sway over China, the ruling dynasty, which Chinese dynastic histories call Liao (916-1125), was strongly influenced by Chinese culture.

In the year 1125 a Tungus people, the Jurchen, allied with Southern Chinese Sung Dynasty, ended the domination of the Khitan. The Khitan exiles, headed by Ye-lü Ta-shih, a member of the Khitan royal family, migrated to the West.^[15] The Khitan settled in the Tarbagatai area east of Zhetysu, and their number grew to 40,000 tents. Around 1130 the local Karakhanid ruler of Balasagun asked for their aid against the hostile Kangly and Karluks. The Khitan occupied Balasaghun, expelled the weak Karakhanid ruler, and founded their own state which stretched from the Yenisei to Talas. They then conquered Kangly and subdued Eastern Turkestan. In 1137 near Khujand they defeated the Transoxanian Turkestan ruler Mahmud Khan, and in 1141 defeated the army of the Seljuk Sultan Sanjar.

The western Khitan state became known under its Turkic name Kara-Khitay (Black, Western, or Great Khitay), and their ruler bore the Turkic title of Gurkhan (Khan’s son-in law).^[16] The original Uch-Karluk confederation became split between the Karakhanid state in the west and the Karakhitay state in the east, which lasted until the Mongol time. Both in the west and east, Karluk principalities retained their autonomous status and indigenous rulers, though in Karakhitay the Karluk khan, like the ruler of Samarkand, was forced to accept the presence of a permanent representative of the Gurkhan.^[17]

Directly, the Gurkhans administered limited territories, populated in 1170 by 84,500 families under direct rule. The Gurkhan's headquarters was called Khosun-ordu (lit. "Strong Ordu"), or Khoto ("House"). The Karluk capital was Kayalik. The Karakhanids continued to rule over Transoxania and Eastern Turkestan. Juvayni stresses the oppression of the Karakhitay in comparison with Karluk times. Islam was forced out of its dominant position to equal the other religions, which took advantage of the new freedom to increase the number of their adherents. The Nestorian Patriarch Elias III (1176–1190) founded a metropoly in Kashghar. The Karakhitay metropolitan bore the title of "Metropolitan of Kashghar and Navakat", showing that the see of Kashghar also controlled the southern part of Zhetysu. The oldest Nestorian tombs in the Tokmak and Pishpek cemeteries go back to the epoch of Karakhitay domination.

The Karakhitay Muslim vassals rebelled, initially successfully quashed by the government. The situation changed when the most powerful Western Mongolian Nayman tribe, headed by Küchlük (lit. “Little”), a son of the last Nayman khan east of the Karakhitay empire, were ousted (towards 1209) from Mongolia by Genghis Khan. The Nayman Nestorian Christian Küchlük seized the power in the name of Gurkhan, but soon, in the 1211, a Mongol detachment under the command of Khubilai noyon, one of Genghis Khan's generals, appeared in the northern part of Zhetysu. Arslan-khan Karluk killed the Karakhitay governor of Kayalik and proclaimed his loyalty to Genghis Khan. The Zhetysu, together with Eastern Turkestan, voluntarily surrendered to the Mongols.^[18]

Mongol era[link]

In the 1211 a Mongol detachment under command of Khubilai noyon, one of Genghis Khan's generals, appeared in the northern part of Zhetysu. Arslan (Tr. "lion") Khan Karluk (probably the son of Arslan-khan and brother of Mamdu-khan) killed the Khitan governor of Kayalik and proclaimed his loyalty to Genghis Khan.^[19] The "Collection of Annals" records that Genghis Khan removed his title from Karluk Arslan Khan: "Let your name be Sartaktai", i.e. Sart, said the sovereign.^[3]

After the absorption of the Karakhanid state by the Chagatai Khanate, the ethnonym Karluk became rarely used. The Karluk language was the primary basis for the later lingua-franca of the Chagatai Khanate and Central Asia under the Timurid Khanate. It is therefore designated by linguists and historians as the Chagatai language, but its contemporaries such as Timur-Lenk or Babur, simply called it Turki.

Social organization[link]

The state of Karluk Yabgu was an association of semi-independent districts and cities, each equipped with its own militia. The biggest was the capital Suyab, which could turn out 20,000 warriors, and among other districts, the town of Begliligh had 10,000 warriors, Panjikat could turn out 8,000 warriors, Barskhan 6,000 warriors, and Yar 3,000 warriors. The titles of the petty rulers were Qutegin of the Karluk Laban clan in Karminkat, Taksin in Jil, Tabin-Barskhan in Barskhan, Turkic Yindl-Tegin and Sogdian Badan-Sangu in Beglilig. The prince of the capital Suyab, situated north of the Chu river in the Turgesh land, was a brother of one of the Göktürk khans, but bore the Persian title Yalan-shah, i.e. "King of Heroes".

Muslim authors describe in detail the trade route from Western Asia to China across Zhetysu, mentioning many cities. Some bore double names, both Turkic and Sogdian. They wrote about the capital cities of Balasagun, Suyab, and Kayalik, in which William of Rubruck for the first time saw three Buddhist temples in the Muslim town. The geographers also mentioned Taraz (Talas, Auliya-ata), Navakat (now Kara-bulak), Atbash (now Koshoy-Kurgan ruins), Issyk-kul, Barskhan, Panjikat, Akhsikat, Beglilig, Almalik, Jul, Yar, Ton, Panchul, and others.^[20]

See also: Karlugh Turks of Pakistan

Modern period[link]

In the 20th century, the geopolitical Great Game among great powers demanded the creation of modern nationalities among Central Asian Turks. The ethnonym "Karluk" was not revived. Instead, Uzbek and Uyghur became the two major divisions among speakers of modern variants of the Chagatai language. Under these two modern nationalities, there are subgroups like the Uyghur Dolan, Aynur and several regional populations of Uzbeks. Some of the Uzbeks share more similarities with Kipchak groups like the Karakalpak and Kazakhs, or with the Iranic Tajiks, than with fellow Uzbeks who speak a descendant of the Karluk language.

Notes and references[link]

Sources

• Z. V. Togan: The Origins of the Kazaks and the ôzbeks, H.B. Paksoy, IUE.it, webpage: IUE-5.

Felix Baumgartner (born 20 April 1969 in Salzburg, Austria) is an Austrian skydiver and a BASE jumper. He is renowned for the particularly dangerous nature of the stunts he has performed during his career. Baumgartner spent time in the Austrian military where he practiced parachute jumping, including training to land on small target zones.

Biography[link]

He was born on 20 April 1969 in Salzburg, Austria.^[1]

In 1999 he claimed the world record for the highest parachute jump from a building when he jumped from the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.^[2]

On 31 July 2003, Baumgartner became the first person to skydive across the English Channel using a specially made fibre wing.^[3]

Baumgartner set the world record for the lowest BASE jump ever, from the hand of the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro.^[4]

He became the first person to BASE jump from the completed Millau Viaduct in France on 27 June 2004^{[citation needed]} and the first person to sky dive onto, then BASE jump from, the Turning Torso building in Malmö, Sweden on 18 August 2006.^[5]

On 12 December 2007 he became the first person to jump from the 91st floor observation deck, then went to the 90th floor (about 390 m (1,280 ft)) of the then tallest completed building in the world, Taipei 101, Taipei, Taiwan.^[6]

[edit] Red Bull Stratos

In January 2010, it was reported that Baumgartner was working with a team of scientists and sponsor Red Bull to attempt the highest sky-dive on record.^[7] Baumgartner was going to make the 120,000 ft (36,600 m) jump from a capsule suspended from a balloon filled with helium, intending to become the first parachutist to break the sound barrier; the feat was scheduled to take place sometime in 2011.^[8][9][10] Joseph Kittinger, who holds the records Baumgartner is attempting to break, was advising Baumgartner during the "Stratos" mission in the hopes of getting scientific data on next-generation full pressure suits.^[7][11] However, on October 12, 2010, Red Bull announced it was placing the project on hold after Daniel Hogan filed a lawsuit in California Superior Court in Los Angeles, California in April, claiming he had originated the idea of the parachute dive from the edge of space in 2004 and that Red Bull had stolen the idea from him.^[12][13] The lawsuit was resolved out of court in June 2011^[14] and on 5 February 2012, The Daily Telegraph reported that the project would be resumed.^[15]

On 15 March 2012 he completed the first of two test jumps from 71,581 feet (21,818 m). During the jump he spent approximately three minutes and 43 seconds in free fall, reaching speeds of more than 360 miles per hour (580 km/h), before opening his parachute. In total, the jump lasted approximately eight minutes and eight seconds and Baumgartner became only the third person to safely parachute from a height of over 13.5 miles (21.7 km).^[16]

See also[link]

• Michel Fournier, who has been working on a 25 mile jump for several years.^[17]
• Joseph Kittinger, world record holder for skydiving from 102,800 ft
• Yves Rossy, the first man to cross the English Channel using a jet-powered wing

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Red Bull Stratos Project
• Felix Jumping from the Christ Redemeer - Rio de Janeiro - Brazil

External media
	Felix Baumgartner

Marianne Vos

Vos wearing the rainbow jersey in 2011
Personal information
Full name	Marianne Vos
Born	(1987-05-13) May 13, 1987 (age 25) 's-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands
Height	1.68 m (5 ft 6 in)[1]
Weight	58 kg (130 lb; 9.1 st)[1]
Team information
Current team	Stichting Rabo Women Cycling Team
Discipline	Road, cyclo-cross, MTB, Track
Role	Rider
Professional team(s)
2006–	DSB-Ballast Nedam
Major wins
UCI Women's Road World Cup (2007) La Flèche Wallonne Féminine (2007–2009) UCI Road Race World Championships (2006) UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships (2006, 2009–2012)
Medal record Competitor for the  Netherlands Cyclo-cross World Championship Gold 2006 Zeddam Elite Gold 2009 Hoogerheide Elite Gold 2010 Tábor Elite Gold 2011 Sankt Wendel Elite Gold 2012 Koksijde Elite Silver 2008 Treviso Elite Road bicycle racing World Championship Gold 2006 Salzburg Elite road race Silver 2007 Stuttgart Elite road race Silver 2008 Varese Elite road race Silver 2009 Mendrisio Elite road race Silver 2010 Geelong Elite road race Silver 2011 Copenhagen Elite road race Track cycling Olympic Games Gold 2008 Beijing Points race World Championship Gold 2008 Manchester Points race Gold 2011 Apeldoorn Scratch
Infobox last updated on 15 February 2012

Marianne Vos, ( pronunciation (help·info)) (born 13 May 1987) is a Dutch cyclo-cross, road bicycle racer and track racer. After winning a junior European and world championship in road racing, she continued in senior cycling by becoming world champion in cyclo-cross and road racing at the age of 19. Vos added track racing world championships when she won the points race in 2008 and the scratch race in 2011. In the 2008 Summer Olympics, she won the gold medal in the points race.

Early years[link]

Marianne Vos was born in 's-Hertogenbosch, Noord-Brabant and lives in the small village of Meeuwen. She started her career when she was six years old after she watched her older brother who was already a cyclist.^[2] At first she trained with her brother's team as she was not allowed to participate in races; during the winter she started training in cyclo-cross as well. When she was eight, she was able to ride races.^[2] Vos also participated in speed skating and inline speed skating. At 14 she replaced inline skating with mountain biking.

Professional career[link]

2002, 2003[link]

In 2002 she won two national championships and finished second in another. She became Dutch mountain biking champion and won the national junior road race,^[3][4] while she finished second in the Dutch time trial championship behind Roxanne Knetemann.^[5] In 2003 Vos successfully defended her national junior mountain bike title.^[3] At the time trial championships she again finished second, this time behind Maxime Groenewegen while 2002 champion Roxanne Knetemann finished fourth.^[6]

2004[link]

Vos excelled in cyclo-cross for the first time in 2004 when she won her first international race in Gieten, beating Birgit Hollmann and Arenda Grimberg.^[7] She finished third in the Dutch junior road race and time trial, unable to beat Ellen van Dijk who won both events.^[8][9] Continuing her cyclo-cross season she added wins in Surhuisterveen and Pijnacker-Nootdorp. In the last she beat Hanka Kupfernagel and Daphny van den Brand.^[10][11] For the third straight time she became Dutch junior champion in mountain biking before heading to Verona for the junior road world championship.^[3] Aged 17 and a first-year junior, Vos broke away in the final of five laps on the climb. She stayed clear and became world champion.^[12] At the end of 2004 Vos was elected Sport FM Sportswoman of the year 2004^[13]

2005[link]

As junior world champion Vos claimed her first Dutch junior national road title in front of 2004 champion Ellen van Dijk.^[14] Van Dijk was able to defend her time trial title successfully before Maxime Groenewegen, while Vos finished third again.^[15] Participating as a senior at the Dutch cyclo-cross championship Vos finished second behind Daphny van den Brand.^[16] She then won her fourth Dutch junior mountain bike title, before winning a junior World Cup meeting in Houffalize.^[3] She finished fourth at the world junior cyclo-cross championship and won a race held in Heeswijk a week later.^[3] From then on Vos occasionally took part in senior road races. One was the Omloop van Borsele which she won by beating Adrie Visser.^[17] Including Vos's world championship in 2004 The Netherlands had won the last three editions of the junior championship (the others being Loes Markerink in 2002 and Suzanne de Goede in 2003).^[12] Vos's goal was to add a fourth title by defending her title in Salzburg, but she finished second behind Denmark's Mie Bekker Lacota.^[18]

Vos went to cyclo-cross again. Six weeks after her silver medal from Salzburg she won in Harderwijk and Suameer.^[19][20] Her next aim was the European cyclo-cross championship in Pont-Château, France. She started in the élite field and was expected to assist Daphny van den Brand but instead beat the favourites, including van den Brand who won silver.^[21] After the European championship she won two cyclo-crosses in Gieten and Loenhout.^[22][23] Vos was named Sport FM Sportswoman of the year 2005'.'^[13]

2006[link]

Vos won her first race of 2006 on 1 January in Pétange.^[24] Less than a week later, the Dutch championship in Huijbergen was again a clash between Vos and van den Brand, this time van den Brand becoming champion while Vos took silver.^[25] Vos then concentrated on the world cyclo-cross championship in her own country, in Zeddam. On 29 January 2006 she was in excellent form, with only Hanka Kupfernagel and Daphny van den Brand able to catch her. Van den Brand changed bikes and lost her lead, following at a minute to take bronze. The gold medal was decided in the last metres when Vos outsprinted Kupfernagel.^[26]

During the 2006 road season Vos took part in the Gracia-Orlova Tour in the Czech Republic and won the 5th stage, 2:20 before the pack.^[27] In that same week she won the Omloop van Borsele for the second time in a row, beating Vera Koedooder and Bertine Spijkerman.^[28] In Spain she took part in the Emakumeen Bira and won the 1st stage.^[29] She then travelled back to Holland for the national road championship in Maastricht. Vos showed up in the group containing all favourites and outsprinted Sharon van Essen and Suzanne de Goede to win the title.^[30] On 28 June 2006 Vos was named Dutch Sports Talent of the year 2006 in front of pentathlete Laurien Hoos and gymnast Epke Zonderland. The additional award was handed to her by former swimming star Erica Terpstra.^[31]

A few weeks later she was strongest in the Omloop van Valkenburg where she again finished in front of de Goede.^[32] She still had the age of a junior and took part in the European road race championship in Valkenburg. She won the sprint against Italy's Tatiana Guderzo.^[33] She went on to win two stages and overall in the Tour Féminin en Limousin.^[34] In July, she won criteriums in Steenwijk, Draai van de Kaai, Oostvoorne and Pijnackerow.^[35]

In August, she signed a five-year deal with the Dutch Team DSB-Ballast Nedam.^[36] It wasn't long before she won her first race with DSB. At the end of the 4th stage of the Trophée d'Or Féminin Vos beat Tanja Schmidt-Hennes.^[37]

With the silver medal won in 2005 in mind, Vos returned to Salzburg for the senior road race at the World Championship of road cycling. Vos remained in the bunch until Nicole Cooke started the action in the fifth of six laps. Cooke attacked on the second climb and only Nicole Brändli and Vos were able to catch her. A few others came back a few kilometres later. Judith Arndt left the group by herself. Vos made the jump to Arndt and they led for a few minutes until the chasers came back. From then, the group stayed together apart from attacks on either the flat road or the second climb. The race went to a sprint of 15 riders, Vos taking another rainbow jersey.^[38]

In the 2006 UCI Cyclo-cross European Championships Vos won a bronze medal behind Daphny van den Brand and Hanka Kupfernagel.^[39]

2007[link]

Vos competing in the Grand Prix Adri van der Poel cyclo-cross race in January 2007

Vos won La Flèche Wallonne Féminine and the Rund um die Nürnberger Altstadt World Cup events before going on to win the series overall. She also finished second in the Road Race World Championships, conceding her title to Marta Bastianelli of Italy who broke away in the last 15 km of the race.

2008[link]

Vos added a track cycling world title to her list when she won the Women's Points Race at the 2008 UCI Track Cycling World Championships. In doing so, she became the first woman to have held world championship titles on the road, track and cyclo-cross. Vos became Olympic points race champion at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

2009[link]

In 2009, Vos started by winning the Cyclo-cross world championships. She also had success on the road, as she won La Flèche Wallonne Féminine for the third time. Later that year, she finished second in the UCI Road World Championships.

2010[link]

In 2010, Vos again won the silver medal in the UCI Road World Championships, but became world champion Cyclo-cross again.

2011[link]

Vos captured her fifth consecutive silver medal at the UCI Road World Championships. She won the scratch race in the UCI Track World Championships, and the world cyclo-cross championship.

2012[link]

In 2012, Vos won the world cyclo-cross championship again.

Outside sports[link]

Vos is an ambassador for Youth United for Sri Lanka (YU4SL), set up by young people to help underprivileged people in Sri Lanka. Speed skater Ireen Wüst and other Dutch celebrities joined Vos as an ambassador.^[40]

Achievements[link]

Marianne Vos's palmarès, a list of her main achievements:^[41][42]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Marianne Vos

• Official Marianne Vos website
• Marianne Vos profile at CycleBase.nl
• Marianne Vos profile at Cycling Archives

Sporting positions
Preceded by Regina Schleicher	World Road Race Champion 2006	Succeeded by Marta Bastianelli
Preceded by Hanka Kupfernagel	World Cyclo-cross Champion 2006	Succeeded by Maryline Salvetat
Preceded by Hanka Kupfernagel	World Cyclo-cross Champion 2009–2012	Succeeded by Incumbent
Preceded by  Nicole Cooke (GBR)	UCI Women's Road World Cup Champion 2007	Succeeded by  Nicole Cooke (GBR)
Preceded by  Nicole Cooke (GBR)	UCI Women's Road World Cup Champion 2009–2010	Succeeded by  Annemiek van Vleuten (NED)
Awards
Preceded by Marleen Veldhuis	Dutch Sportswoman of the Year 2008–2009	Succeeded by Nicolien Sauerbreij