'Marlen is flying': Vollering explains reaction to being caught by Reusser in Worlds TT
Vollering explained that she felt good before Reusser's overtake, then tried to regain her focus and finish strongly in Montréal.
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Demi Vollering said she was happy with her ride before realising that Marlen Reusser was catching her from behind during Sunday’s time trial at the World Championships in Montréal, Canada.
The former SD Worx teammates were the final two riders off the start ramp for the 39.2km course, with Vollering starting one and a half minutes ahead of Reusser.
Reusser, the defending champion, lived up to the billing as the pre-race favourite, increasing the speed throughout her effort.
This culminated in Reusser catching and passing Vollering shortly after the third checkpoint to post a winning time of 50:24, 40 seconds ahead of Zoe Bäckstedt, who took a fine silver.
Meanwhile, Vollering, who finished 1:49 behind Reusser in eighth, remained positive when speaking to CyclingProNet shortly after her effort as she praised the performance of the Swiss.
“I think I can not be negative yet. I mean, from my feeling, it was a good time trial that I was doing. I had a good rhythm from my feeling,” Vollering told CyclingProNet.
“Yeah, I was actually happy, and then I heard that Marlen was coming from the back,” Vollering said. “So I was like ‘okay, Marlen is flying today like all the other time trials,’ so yeah, really great job from Marlen.”
Vollering explained the psychological impact of being caught by Reusser, and how it took a moment to regain focus.
“At this moment, I lost a little bit of focus, but I tried to come back to it and finish the time trial on a good [note],” Vollering explained.
“But yeah, I don’t know, I had the feeling I was doing a good time trial. But then, in the end, it was really a time trial course for really the time trial specialists. I did my all, and yeah, that’s it.”
Ultimately, Vollering cut a calm and relaxed figure with the road race next Saturday the clear priority.
“Of course, I prepared for the time trial, but I was also a bit more focused on also the road race.”
“So, now we recover from this and we look forward to the road race, that’s another day, and we see how it goes there.”
Race result: 2026 World Championship ITT Women
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