Marlen Reusser's Tour de France Femmes went from bad to worse on the final stage in Nice, with the Movistar leader crashing on the first descent from the Col d'Èze after being dropped by the yellow jersey group.
Reusser took a long time getting up after her fall, but resumed riding surrounded by her teammates but was over six minutes behind the lead group at the start of the second lap.
Reusser led the Tour de France Femmes for three stages after winning the stage 4 individual time trial, but lost the maillot jaune to Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon-SRAM) on the Mont Ventoux.
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Niewiadoma-Phinney then lost the jersey to Demi Vollering (FDJ United-SUEZ) on stage 8 to Nice, but Reusser remained in third place overall with 1:53 on fourth-placed Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team l'IMAD).
However, with the Italian champion making the lead group over the first ascent of the Col d'Èze, Reusser's hopes of holding onto the podium were already vanishing up the road when she crashed.
More to come.
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