Marlen Reusser warns Tour win sets 'new standard' for extreme weight loss

In the months before the Tour, Ferrand-Prévot stepped away from the peloton entirely. She relocated to Andorra, trained in isolation, and followed a strict programme that saw her shed around four kilograms. It was a calculated move aimed squarely at the mountains of the Tour. The logic is simple: with the same power output, carrying less weight uphill means reaching the summit faster. For Reusser, who is also a trained doctor, it raised questions that reach far beyond one rider’s victory.

Weight reduction is nothing new in cycling, but the peloton had seemed to move away from the ultra-thin physiques of the past. Now, Reusser fears, the pendulum could be swinging back.

“Ferrand-Prévot has set a new standard. If riders can be that successful with it, it puts pressure on all of us,” Reusser said to Tages-Anzeiger. Some see that as the reality of elite sport, others as a dangerous trend. Tour runner-up Demi Vollering has already made her stance clear: “I’m not built to be the lightest rider in the peloton, and I don’t want to force my body to become something it’s not.”

Reusser is concerned about the message to young riders, especially when it’s reported that the Tour winner measured her skinfolds each morning to decide whether she could eat breakfast. A young teammate even asked her, “Did you see? Ferrand-Prévot checks her skinfold and then decides if she’s allowed to have breakfast.” She also recalls the image of Ferrand-Prévot proudly wearing a new jersey that was visibly too large, a visual message in itself. In her view, moments like these risk undoing years of education about the dangers of under-fuelling and eating disorders.

Ferrand-Prévot herself said her preparation was “done in a smart way with the nutritionist and the team” and stressed that maintaining her Tour race weight all season “would not be healthy.”

Reusser admires Ferrand-Prévot’s unique achievement, yet she views the Tour winner’s preparation through her professional lens as well. “I ask myself: what does that mean for the body? Might it not be so harmful if the deficiency is not permanent? And where does optimisation end and illness begin?” She notes that scientific evidence on the subject is limited. In elite women of peak athletic age, body-fat percentages typically range between 21 and 33 percent. Most riders in the peloton are probably below those numbers, yet that does not automatically mean they are in a dangerous zone.

For Reusser, the risks of prolonged under-fuelling are clear. She points to RED-S, relative energy deficiency in sport, which can lead to problems ranging from depression and higher susceptibility to illness or injury, to anaemia and digestive issues. For women, missed menstrual cycles are a common sign. She stresses that all symptoms share two features: performance will eventually decline, and mental health will be affected.

Earlier this week, The Cyclists’ Alliance, the representative body for female professional riders, entered the debate. In a statement following the Tour de France Femmes, it called for the UCI to implement mandatory screening for RED-S and bone mineral density as part of annual medical checks for all riders. “Rider health and elite performance must go hand in hand,” the Alliance said, adding that the sport has the knowledge to create sustainable, ethical performances without compromising health.

Reusser has raised similar concerns before, even urging the UCI to set a minimum body-fat limit, but nothing came of it. She plans to keep balancing health and performance, and to return to the Tour in 2026 ready to challenge again on her own terms.