Marlen Reusser Solos Her Way to Victory at Gent-Wevelgem
The depth and talent of SD Worx once again took over a major bike race. This time it came at Gent-Wevelgem on Sunday, as Marlen Reusser rode away from the peloton and to the victory on a wet and crash-heavy day in Belgium.
Reusser, who took bronze in the time trial at the World Championships back in September, got to show off her TT skills in the final 40K en route to the win. Not even a wrong turn in the final 5K could stop Reusser on Sunday.
How it played out
The winning move wasn’t unlike the one we saw from the Jumbo-Visma men earlier in the day, who attacked at the start of the Kemmelberg and rode that to the win. With SD Worx at the lead of the peloton with 40K to go at the start of the Baneberg climb, Reusser went to the front and grew a lead from there. Reusser’s move saw little to no answer from the rest of the peloton.
Attempts from the peloton to get organized fell flat. The SD Worx train didn’t feel the need to push the pace with their own rider extending her lead out front. So it turned into a virtual time trial for Reusser, who would not be caught on her way to Wevelgem. It pays to have a team as strong as SD Worx.
It wasn’t all smooth for Reusser, though. With 5K to go, she took a wrong turn at a fork in the road. Luckily for Reusser, her advantage over the rest of the field was over two minutes and she was able to get back on course quickly and it barely cut into her lead.
Reusser cruised to the finish from there, picking up the first Classics win of her career. A Tour de France Femmes Stage 4 winner last summer, Reusser now adds Gent-Wevelgem champion to her palmares.
Gent-Wevelgem - Women’s Top 10
Marlen Reusser (SD Worx)
Megan Jastrab (Team DSM)
Maike van der Duin (Canyon//SRAM)
Karlijn Swinkels (Jumbo-Visma)
Christina Schweinberger (Fenix-Deceuninck)
Marta Bastianelli (UAE Team ADQ)
Elinor Barker (Uno-X Pro Cycling Team)
Clara Copponi (FDJ-Suez)
Anna Henderson (Jumbo-Visma)
Elise Chabbey (Canyon//SRAM)
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