In the run into the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift Marlen Reusser was unquestionably one of the key favourites after claiming runner-up spots at both the Vuelta Femenina and the Giro d’Italia as well as victory at Tour de Suisse and Vuelta a Burgos.
However, doubts were raised on the eve of the race when she couldn't shake an illness that had first taken hold at the Giro d'Italia on the eve of the Tour.
On stage 1, it took less than 80km of racing to utterly destroy Reusser's hopes in France, with stage 1 turning out to be a day of disaster for Movistar.
Not only did Reusser quickly fall behind and then ultimately abandon the race, the team’s stage hopes for Liane Lippert also evaporated.
“Today it started as a fight for the stage with Liane, also, if Marlen was okay to keep her for GC, but in a moment, boom, both go to shit,” Movistar DS Jorge Sanz told a small group of reporters, including Cyclingnews by the team bus.
“And with Liane crashing, we put the full team trying to bring back Liane to the bunch, but it was not possible because the race was full speed.”
It was clear that Reusser was struggling when she quickly fell off the back of the bunch after the 78.8km stage rolled out from Vannes. It was then even more obvious that her hopes were dashed when she was more focused on getting Lippert rolling again after the crash rather than trying to conserve her own time.
Lippert ended up finishing 116th, down 6:54.
The Swiss rider who was seen as one of the biggest challengers to the last two winners of the event, Kasia Niewiadoma and Demi Vollering, was out of the running even before her abandon meant she was out of the race and it was with a problem that stemmed from earlier this month.
“It didn't start today,” said Sanz. “We think it comes from the Giro, the last three days she was suffering too much with the stomach issues. After the Giro she needed to recover more days than normal, but it seemed that she was recovered at the end of the week – at least she could train normally.
“So she came here after resting at home and trying to be full, but the day after she came here, she started to have again, stomach issues pretty similar as in Giro d’Italia and yeah, we tried to take care of her and to come back to 100% fitness but it was not possible and if you are not on full conditions here, you are almost dead.”
It was certainly no easy start to the racing, despite the short distance, with a route to Plumelec which took in the Côte de Botségalo and on the finishing circuit, the Côte de Cadoudal, plus a field that was determined to keep the hammer down and try to start levering out some advantage among the closely matched group of overall contenders.
It was a day that may have left Movistar’s goals shattered, but the race goes on and so remains the hope that there may still be something left to salvage.
“The sun rises tomorrow,” said Sanz. ”First, we have to digest this shit day, and for sure, next day we'll be thinking new options. There are still eight stages to go, and it's a really, really hard Tour de France and we for sure will fight to find new options.”
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