'Until an hour ago I was not sure': Reusser on the pacing puzzle she solved in Worlds ITT

Marlen Reusser said she was still unsure how to pace the world time trial championship an hour before she started it, on a course substantially longer than anything the women's calendar offers.

Reusser covered the 39.2 kilometres in 50:24.44 to beat Zoe Bäckstedt by 40.11 seconds and take a second consecutive rainbow jersey. Franziska Koch was third at 45.54.

"We don't have time trials this long often, it's so long ago that we did, so I'm used to doing 20k," Reusser said in her post-race interview. "We had huge discussions with the team, with performance coaches, about what is the good pacing. Until an hour ago I was not 100 per cent sure, and on the course I was not at all sure."

She was ten seconds down on Bäckstedt at the first check and 2.78 behind at the second. She had asked not to be told.

"I didn't have the gaps, and I was also saying don't give it to me. I was even expecting she'd be faster, because the first part is quite technical and honestly some corners I don't do so well," she said.

What she did have was a rider up the road. Demi Vollering started before her and lost 34 seconds to Bäckstedt at the opening checkpoint, and Reusser caught her.

"The only thing I then thought is that I can pass Demi. But for me, on this course, that was maybe not the biggest reference. So until the finish line I did not know what really happened."

The course still appealed to her, even as it worried her.

"On one hand I really was looking forward to it, because it has so many technical aspects, which makes it much more interesting to ride. But from the side of pacing, and understanding how fast you should go and how you should cope with these challenges on the way, I was really nervous."

Reusser won her first individual world title in Kigali last year after second places in 2020 and 2021 and third in 2022, and has two mixed relay titles alongside them. Asked how she handled the pressure of defending, she rejected the framing.

"I still don't really understand what pressure is and how it feels. I always tell myself there is no pressure," she said. "It's a challenge each time again, no matter if you won before or not. Many of us are here to win, and we do a lot, especially many people around us do a lot. So each of us all the time has kind of this pressure, and at the same time we shouldn't have it, because it's sport. It's about trying to win and fighting. Some lose and sometimes you're part of those, and sometimes you can win."

It was also her birthday, and not the first title she has taken on it. She won the European championship on the same date several years ago.

"It's a good present. I also thought, I win or not, anyway I have something to celebrate."