Simac Ladies Tour: Marlen Reusser wins stage 2 time trial and takes overall lead

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Marlen Reusser (Ale BTC Ljubljana) won the 17km time trial on stage 2 of the Simac Ladies Tour. The Swiss national time trial champion and Olympic Games ITT silver medallist took the stage by 18 seconds ahead of Dutch time trial specialist Ellen van Dijk and moved into the GC lead by 12 seconds, also ahead of van Dijk. 

Chantal van den Broek Blaak placed third on the stage, 41 seconds down on Reusser, and subsequently moved up to third overall at 39 seconds back. 

“Very, very very happy. You never know what's happening. You never know how strong you are or the others are and so it's really a big honour to be the fastest today. I'm so happy,” Reusser said after the stage. 

The crash she suffered on stage 1 did not stop the 29-year-old from taking the win by a huge margin on the flat and windy roads in the Netherlands. 

“Yeah, especially the night was a bit difficult because I have my skin away everywhere,” said Reusser. “But one funny thing is that people texted me [saying] it's no problem, because I destroyed my race suit yesterday, people said, ‘tomorrow you're gonna wear the TT suit and then hopefully the yellow jersey so you don't need another race suit.’ I hope it’s like this.” 

On beating van Dijk, she added, “I know it's possible because it happened before but I also know that she's very strong. It's kind of her terrain and her country. She's very, very strong so I was not sure at all.”

Despite claiming silver in Tokyo and now defending the general classification in this race, Reusser revealed that she is saving her peak form for the upcoming World Championships. 

“I think I'm in shape but also I shouldn't be too much in shape right now because the big goal for sure also is the World Championships in one month,” she said. “So, I hope I'll be in top, top shape for that moment.”

The 17km individual time trial took place on an out-and-back course on which riders had a tailwind on the outward leg and were met with a headwind on their return. 

The second stage left the general classification drastically changed from the previous day as stage 1 winner Alison Jackson finished in 30th position, 2:05 down on Reusser and Marianne Vos lost 1:45 to the Swiss rider. 

FDJ Nouvelle Aquitaine Futuroscope rider Cecilie Uttrup Ludwig is now outside of the top-10 on GC in 11th place and 1:36 back. Meanwhile, Team BikeExchange’s Sarah Roy, Demi Vollering of SD Worx, and Alice Barnes of Canyon-SRAM have moved into the top-10 on GC. 

Reusser, who recently signed a two-year deal with SD Worx, goes into the 125.9km stage 3 as the leader of the race. Asked whether she could win the race overall, Reusser said, “It's the first time in my life and my short career that I'm defending a GC for myself. So let's see. I'll give him everything but for sure this race is really, really tactical and we have to work hard on that but for sure, we will try to keep it.”