SD Worx keeps up its run of dominance, that now stretches back 21 races in a row for the Dutch team. Today it was the turn of Marlen Reusser to take another victory, this time against the clock in the TT stage of this year’s Tour de Suisse Women. The pre-race favourites both came from the SD Worx team in Ruesser and Demi Vollering, so in many ways today was the expected result. Away from the podium, there were a number of strong rides further down the results sheet.
A hilly 25.7km time trial was always going to test the riders, with the potential for the GC to either be effectively won or to be able to be comfortably managed from this point on. The early leader, by some distance, was the Olympic road race champion Anna Kiesnhofer. The Austrian rode a strong TT and it took until very late in the proceedings for her time to be beaten. When it did, it was Brodie Chapman who took over the reins, with her teammate and 2022 Tour de Suisse winner Lucinda Brand shipping over a minute.
Chapman improved the lead time by 17 seconds but her team leader Elisa Longo Borghini took a big chunk out of her by going 58 seconds quicker. With the Italian ahead of the SD Worx pairing at both intermediates it was going to take a large negative split for them to overtake the virtual leader. However, that’s what both of them managed to pull off on the technical sweeping section to the finish line. Reusser finishing ahead of her teammate by 8 seconds and Longo Borghini 16 seconds behind.
Overnight leader and Stage 1 winner Blanka Vas finished around 4 minutes behind and falls down the GC standings.
“It means a lot to me, I dreamed of winning this time trial and taking the yellow jersey here. It’s a brutal discipline. During the ride I thought … I can’t say it here, you’d have to beep it out. But I’m happy that I eventually won.
Honestly, I thought: I’m not going to win. I heard that Longo Borghini was very close and she is the best descender in the peloton, while the technical part was yet to come. I thought she was going to take it. Especially because, after what happened, I was not at a hundred percent. I was not in a good flow for these dangerous bends. That I eventually won, makes me very happy.”
Marlen Reusser
2023 Tour de Suisse Women Stage 2 result
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Main photo credit: Getty Images
