‘You can’t have more bad luck’ - Movistar’s Tour de France Femmes plans ruined on stage 1

Movistar’s Tour de France Femmes ambitions were dealt a major blow after a crash and illness took out two riders on the opening day. 

A week ago, Movistar would have had high hopes for the race, with justifiable ambitions for both a podium place on the final general classification and taking the race’s first yellow jersey by dint of winning Saturday’s opening stage.

However, one crash has put paid to those hopes, and the Spanish squad will need to recalibrate ahead of what will now be a far more challenging week.

With 29km of the day’s short, punchy opening stage to go, the route took the bunch across a narrow bridge where a number of riders came down in a crash about a third of the way. Movistar were worst affected, with both Marlen Reusser and Liane Lippert, their two leaders, taken down.

Lippert was trapped under a pile of bodies and bikes, whilst when her Swiss teammate, Reusser, stood up, she was clearly not right. And, while Lippert remounted to eventually finish almost seven minutes behind stage winner Marianne Vos (Visma | Lease a Bike), Reusser was seen riding some four minutes behind the action before new emerged she had abandoned.

With her punchy sprint and obvious good form after two stage wins at the recent Giro d’Italia Women, Lippert had been one of the favourites for the win on the gnarly uphill finish in Plumelec, with some of the coming stages also good for her. 

“Somebody in front of me crashed,” she said. “I couldn’t get up because I was clipped in, I got the handlebar in the stomach, so it was really hard to push, we will see.”

Since joining the team at the start of the year, Reusser has been flying, finishing second behind Tour favourite Demi Vollering (FDJ-SUEZ) at the Vuelta España Femenina and beating her at the Tour de Suisse. She was also second at the Giro, conceding the general classification lead on the penultimate day, and complaining of illness after the race.

Whether it was the same health problem or not, Reusser again said she was ill in the days leading up to the Tour and was seen off the back of the bunch a few kilometres before the crash. 

“It’s heartbreaking, she was already not feeling super, so difficult times for us now,” Lippert said. “You can’t have more bad luck than us today.”