World time trial champion Marlen Reusser demonstrated her class against the clock as she won stage four of the Tour de France Femmes and leapt into the overall lead.
The Swiss rider was favourite to win the stage and lived up to her billing but the margin was closer than expected: she finished just four seconds clear of Visma-Lease a Bike’s Lieke Nooijen, completing the 21km course from Gevrey-Chambertin to Dijon in 27’30”.
The Movistar rider now has three Tour de France stage wins to her name, two of them being time trials, and also claimed the yellow jersey for the first time.
“I’m super, super happy,” Reusser said. “This was the idea that we had for a long time. It’s the first Tour de France that I saw as my goal for the year, I really targeted it. I am here as a leader, and I knew [the race] was going to start in Switzerland, on Swiss national day, and we would have a TT on the fourth day, so it was our project Dijon.”
Britain’s Zoe Backstedt had also been among the favourites for a top result but missed out on the podium by an agonising two seconds, as 2023 champion Demi Vollering pipped her to third, finishing 17 seconds behind Reusser.
Overall race favourite Vollering was the clear winner among the general classification contenders on the day and knew it, thumping her chest in delight as she crossed the line before pouring water over herself, entirely spent from her efforts.
The FDJ Suez-United rider moved up a place in the overall standings to second as overnight leader and stage three winner Sigrid Haugset, the Norwegian national champion, lost the yellow jersey and slipped to fourth, crossing the line more than three minutes down on Reusser.
The main story of the day was how the race against the clock would upend the general classification standings. Reigning champion Pauline Ferrand-Prevot is not famed for her time trialling ability and arrived at the race an unknown quantity, having not competed in an ITT since her return to road racing last year.
She was expected to lose significant time to her rivals and that proved to be the case, with the parcours - which featured a short but significant climb up the Lacets de Marsannay before a technical descent and flat run into Dijon - favouring the time-trial specialists and all-round GC riders.
Ferrand-Prevot was 34th on the day, over two minutes back, and now sits 14th overall at 2’13” off Reusser and - most significantly - just under two minutes behind Vollering, who finished second overall last year.
Poland’s Kasia Niewiadoma, the 2024 champion, also lost time as expected but limited the damage as she finished 13th, a minute and eight seconds down on Reusser.
The Canyon-SRAM rider beamed as she assessed her day afterwards: “I felt that I found my flow. I definitely spent a huge amount of time working on my skills because as everyone knew, I wasn’t the best at it. As you can see, if you believe in something and you put good amount of work, anything is possible.”
Reusser now leads the overall standings by 14 seconds from Vollering, with France’s Cedrine Kerbaol third, 54 seconds back. Haugset sits 56 seconds off the Swiss rider, with Elisa Longo Borghini - whose race was impeded by a bike change - fifth at 1’03” and Niewiadoma sixth at 1’09”.
Longo Borghini’s UAE Team L’Imad teammate and recent Vuelta Espana Femenina champion Paula Blasi is seventh at 1’12”.
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