Following a Giro d’Italia Women campaign derailed by a mid-race illness, Marlen Reusser (Movistar) has revealed that her build-up to the Tour de France Femmes has also been hit by illness.
The Swiss racer finished second at the Giro earlier this month, eventually falling just 18 seconds short of her first Grand Tour victory. She held the leader’s pink jersey for four of the eight stages but lost it on the penultimate day up Monte Nerone as Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team ADQ) jumped away up the road.
On Saturday, she’ll head up Movistar’s charge at the French Grand Tour, returning to the race following a one-year layoff. Reusser won stages in 2022 and 2023 with SD Worx but now leads a squad including Liane Lippert, Aude Biannic and Sara Martín.
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The race kicks off with a challenging hilly stage in Plumelec on Saturday, a stage which could feature GC action on the tough uphill finish. Reusser, however, said illness might halt her challenge before it has even begun.
“It took me a moment, but I could recover from it. It was really, really bad diarrhoea for quite a moment. I lost quite some weight and energy, so it took me a moment,” she said of her Giro d’Italia illness, before revealing that she fell ill again this week.
“Sadly, now again, I ate something that made me vomit during one night, and I’m not in a good place again. It’s very annoying at the moment. I know that it was the dinner because I saw it all completely.”
When asked about her expectations for the Tour, Reusser said she wasn’t sure. The Swiss rider and her team will take it stage by stage and hope she makes it back to full strength.
However, she admitted that she doesn’t quite know what her 100% form would look like at the moment, following those difficulties at the Giro.
“I actually am not even sure. I need to see how I feel tomorrow,” Reusser said. “Maybe I look good, but I don’t feel good. We just need to see day by day, you know how it is. Maybe I get better and recover, and suddenly I have my full strength back
“Also, we don’t know what full strength is after this disaster in the Giro. Of course, I took it easy since then and recovered.
“I had such a great season so far, and if we know I’m in good health, we know I’m able to do very, very nice things. But I also think you shouldn’t stress your own health to the limit for too long. So, we really have to be smart and make responsible decisions.”
Reusser’s time in the lead of the Giro d’Italia Women was brought to an end by illness (Image credit: Getty Images)
This badly-timed spate of illnesses isn’t the only one Reusser has had to contend with in recent years. Last year, her season was ruined by an illness that turned out to be a bout of long COVID.
She has bounced back this year, with overall wins at the Vuelta a Burgos and Tour de Suisse to go with her podium spots at the Vuelta España Femenina and Giro d’Italia. It sounds as though replicating those top results in France could be a challenge, however.
“In the last year, my expectations were more like nowhere, like ‘let’s see what I can do at all’. So, I was kind of without expectations,” she said of her 2024 season.
“And of course, I am more than happy with how it’s going. I’m super happy to be part of Movistar. It’s a very, very good place for me. Just recently, as I said, I have had bad luck with the infections I’m facing, but everything else is wonderful.”
Reusser is, of course, in her first year at Movistar following a reshuffling of top riders as she and several others, including former SD Worx teammate Demi Vollering, moved onto new squads.
Speaking to Cyclingnews back in June, Reusser said that there are “very different dynamics” between her current and former teams.
After seven months at Movistar, she’s happy, she said, while also recognising that having more freedom at her new team – without racing alongside and working for riders such as Vollering – has enabled her to develop as a rider.
“I think there are huge differences, and you spend a lot of time there, so I think there’s a huge dynamic that can develop in a team that can be very different between teams,” Reusser said.
“There are big differences; how the team vibe is, how the team culture is, first of all. And then also, before I got sick, we were world number one, two, three, and with 5 on the same team, which it’s no surprise that this is super special situation.
“And now I am at Movistar. There is no world number one and two next to me, and I can fully develop myself. So, of course, it is very different.”
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