'All a bit stupid' - Reusser rues Vollering duel after losing Tour Femmes lead

Marlen Reusser lost the Tour de France Femmes lead at Mont Ventoux, but the yellow jersey passed to Kasia Niewiadoma rather than her former teammate and rival Demi Vollering. 

On a day of high drama in Provence, Reusser and Vollering marked one another closely on the slopes of Mont Ventoux, even after Niewiadoma had attacked with intent with 9km of the climb still remaining.

“I think we stared at each other for too long at that moment,” Reusser said afterwards, according to Radsport-News.com. “Neither of us reacted because we were staring at each other.”

Reusser had begun the day with a lead of 12 seconds over Vollering and 1:17 on Niewiadoma, and Pole took advantage of that deficit – and the longstanding rivalry between the top two – to build an advantage on the most demanding section of Mont Ventoux.

Niewiadoma explained afterwards that her strategy was to hit Chalet Reynard alone at the head of the race, mindful that her pursuers were unlikely to collaborate smoothly in the headwind on the exposed upper portion of Mont Ventoux.

So it proved. Even before reaching the final 6km, Reusser and Vollering looked decidedly wary of working together to chase Niewiadoma. The Movistar rider suggested that Vollering’s accelerations had made her reluctant to collaborate with her rival.

“Demi kept attacking really hard. Naturally, neither of us wanted to ride like that,” Reusser said. “I said to her, ‘Let’s ride together.’ But she just kept attacking.” 

Reusser and Vollering rode at a steadier tempo on the windswept finale of Mont Ventoux, though Niewiadoma would move into the virtual race lead with 4km to race. In the final kilometre, Vollering produced a fierce acceleration to rip clear of Reusser, and she would put 30 seconds into the yellow jersey by the summit.

It wasn’t enough to deny Niewiadoma, however, with the Canyon-SRAM rider winning the stage by 1:16 from Vollering, while Reusser came home fourth at 1:46. In the overall standings, Niewiadoma leads Vollering by 15 seconds, while Reusser drops to third at 39 seconds.

“She held something back a bit at the end, but I’d had the feeling for a while that she was holding back a bit,” Reusser said of Vollering. “I really think it was all a bit stupid. And above all, I think Kasia did a brilliant job.”