World time trial champion Marlen Reusser traded her rainbow jersey for a yellow one on stage 4 of the Tour de France Femmes as 'Project Dijon' turned into 'Project Nice'.
The Swiss rider held off a strong challenge from Dutch time trial champion Lieke Nooijen to win by four seconds in France's mustard capital. More importantly, however, she put 17 seconds into Demi Vollering, a minute into Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney, and two minutes into defending Tour champion, Pauline Ferrand-Prévot.
With one of her 'projects' already a success, the next challenge for Reusser and Movistar will be to defend yellow through the Ardéche, over Mont Ventoux, and all that way to Nice.
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"My team is very, very motivated and was very on board for this Project Dijon, how we call it," Reusser told Cyclingnews in the post-stage press conference on Tuesday.
"Actually, we never called something 'Project Nice', but I think we have 'Project Nice'. We do everything we can to do that. But, as was the case with 'Project Dijon', you just can't know how everything is going to turn out.
"As I said, I'm super happy that I'm here in yellow. If I stand in Nice in yellow, I'm even happier, but you don't know. We've seen it in so many stage races – so many things can happen; it can change. I'm not at all like, 'I have yellow, I've got to have it in Nice,' but I think it's possible."
Reusser now holds a 14-second advantage over Vollering, while Ferrand-Prévot has a deficit of 2:13 to recoup across the remaining five stages if she's to retain her title. Somewhat ominously, the reigning champion said she was looking forward to the challenge of fighting her way back to the top of the standings.
However, Reusser doesn't expect the French woman and her Visma-Lease a Bike team to start the attacking in the shorter hills that litter the two upcoming stages to Belleville-en-Beaujolais and Tournon-sur-Rhône, however.
"Not necessarily Visma is expected to do that, because I think Pauline – I don't know what shape she really is in – her quality last year was on the long climbs, so I would more expect her to try on Mont Ventoux," she said.
"But I don't know what's their plan. These days she didn't look super punchy, so I don't think it's maybe the best stage tomorrow for her, but I'm ready to see what happens."
Reusser's Movistar team appears, on the face of it, a touch underpowered by comparison with those of several rivals, notably Vollering's all-star FDJ United-SUEZ squad. Liane Lippert and Arlenis Sierra figure to be her top lieutenants in the face of the upcoming onslaught.
However, as she said before the Grand Départ, she's more than used to the underdog label – even if it wasn't deserved before and certainly isn't appropriate this week.
"Everybody says, 'Now that you're good, what made you change that?' I think I showed already these years that I can climb very fast, but often I had to work in between or in the beginning, and then it's so hard to climb," she said.
"I was like, why should I now, for place seven or five or whatever, kill myself when I have this role? So I was really looking forward to having my leader role, saving my legs, and then trying my best climbing and showing what I can do. That's what we do now."
Reusser's legs will certainly be tested again in the coming days, as, even if Ferrand-Prévot may well hold fire, a host of other, punchier riders, including Vollering, Niewiadoma-Phinney, Elisa Longo Borghini, Paula Blasi, and Anna van der Breggen, all lie within 1:20 of her maillot jaune.
Still, whether she holds the lead for a single day or all the way to the Côte d'Azur, winning her first stage since the closing Pau time trial three years ago and wearing the famous jersey is certainly reason for celebration.
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