Movistar's Marlen Reusser is set to pin on a number for the first time since the start of February on Wednesday, lining up at Dwars door Vlaanderen Women after a nasty injury sustained at the UAE Tour.
Reusser crashed hard on stage 2 of the UAE Tour and finished the stage, but failed to start the following day. Initially, the signs were positive that she had avoided any fractures or concussion, but some deep lacerations to her hand, and particularly her knee, sidelined her for several weeks.
The Swiss rider has been back in training for a few weeks, and has now arrived in Belgium ready to restart her season, and hoping to make the races, not just start them.
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"Now it's on to Flanders Classics, where I can fight for the trophies again after my forced break," Reusser wrote on Instagram on Monday, and her team were equally optimistic about her return.
"She's good," Movistar Directeur Sportiff Kelvin Dekker told Cyclingnews on the eve of Dwars door Vlaanderen. "We had to skip Strade after her crash in UAE. She had quite a deep wound beneath the knee which just needed time.
"We were quite happy after the crash that she didn't break anything but then the wound took a while to heal. But she started training again right before Strade and we said we were going to skip it because it wouldn't be the best [race]."
Fast forward a few weeks, though, and Reusser's slow but steady recovery is complete. A winner of Gent-Wevelgem in the past, Reusser didn't want to skip these Classics, but she will have half an eye on bigger goals still to come in the first half of the year.
"Now she's back, she's in full preparation for La Vuelta which is the most important thing, but she's ready to race and ready to go for Flanders – which is one of my favourite races and therefore also one of her favourite races. I put that pressure on her! But no, she's back, she's feeling good. Like I said, building up to La Vuelta, but she's ready to race on the level," Dekker confirmed.
Dwars door Vlaanderen is never an easy race, let alone if you've only raced three race days so far in 2026, Reusser going second at her opener at Trofeo Marratxi-Felanitx before a DNF at UAE Tour. Reusser will be thrown into the deep end on Wednesday, but Dekker is expecting her to hit the ground running.
"We expect her to do the final both tomorrow and on Sunday," he said. "She'll be one of our big cards to play, together with Liane [Lippert] and Cat [Ferguson] maybe also, but more as a joker I think.
"But our focus is on Marlen and Liane, and we expect them both in the finals. How good they are, no idea, we'll have to see, Flanders is a crazy race, first we need to get there and then we'll see."
'We're one of the strongest teams'
Of course, Dwars door Vlaanderen, Flanders and Paris-Roubaix are the real big focuses of the weeks to come, but whatever happens with Reusser, Lippert and Ferguson, the team will at least come away from this Belgian cobbles block with one very memorable win.
"The win for Carys boosted us a lot," Dekker said of Carys Lloyd's dramatic, unexpected victory at Ronde van Brugge last Thursday.
"We obviously didn't go into the race thinking we would win it. Everyone in the team knows how crazy strong she is and how good she is in the sprint. Even though she's so young, she's a really valued teammate when she works for someone else. Also everyone likes to work for her because they know that she can deliver big at some moment, we just didn't expect it to be on Thursday for the win."
Though last week's success has certainly lifted the mood in the Movistar camp, reminding them of their strength even without riders like Reusser and Lippert, Dekker was clear to underline that it doesn't mean they've taken their foot off the accelerator in Belgium.
"It kind of takes the pressure off, but also you come on Sunday and we had a bit of a shit race and you go home a little bit disappointed from that," he said. "You think 'OK, at least we won on Thursday' but also, cycling goes so quick, so we really want to win again tomorrow [Dwars door Vlaanderen] and on Sunday [Tour of Flanders], but it does give a lot of motivation."
As well as motivation, the team absolutely know they have the strength to be one of the top teams on the cobbles, and that's how they intend to race this week.
"I think with the line-up we have for tomorrow and also for Sunday, we're one of the strongest teams on the road," Dekker said.
"It almost gives me a problem of who has to work early in the race, but luckily we have Carys who's like a machine who can do a lot of work in the beginning, even though she's won Bruges. Someone asked me, 'is she going to be for Gent-Wevelgem?' and I said, 'nah, she's probably going to be the first one to work' so she'll do the same in these races.
"We really go in knowing we're one of the big teams, we want to take responsibility, we know we can influence the race, hopefully in our direction."
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