Dominant Reusser wins the elite women's European Championship time trial and denies Demi Vollering again

At the World Time Trial Championships, it was certainly a painful sight: Demi Vollering was considered one of the main challengers to defending champion Marlen Reusser, but was overtaken by the Swiss rider. She more than made up for it, however, by winning the road race title in Canada. She also won gold at the European Cycling Championships, successfully defending her title.

There was therefore little pressure on the world’s best female cyclist, who is lining up as a medal contender. Lieke Nooijen was due to be the first Dutch rider to start, but it was the Greek rider Eleftheria Giachou’s turn first. She got the ball rolling and even held the fastest split time for quite a while.

But after a while, the first big names took to the start line. Sandrine Tas was one of the first: the Belgian immediately set the fastest split time, but Britain’s Lauren Dickson beat it by a narrow margin. The climb was clearly the real deciding factor, as the climbers performed brilliantly there. Take Juliette Berthet, for example: the Frenchwoman finished eighteen seconds ahead of Dixon’s time.

Nooijen had already lost 1.14 minutes by that point. The Dutch rider had to rely on the flat sections, but lost a lot of time on the climb. Dominika Wlodarczyk (Poland), however, beat the fastest time by a second, but Elisa Longo Borghini (Italy) went even faster. Demi Vollering, however, took it to a whole new level. The Dutch rider overtook Franziska Koch on the climb and was a whopping 43 seconds faster!

The gauntlet had been thrown down, but Reusser didn’t panic. She also caught sight of Koch and beat the Dutch rider’s time by eleven seconds. Meanwhile, Tas had set a target time at the finish, but by the second intermediate point she had already been beaten by Berthet. The Frenchwoman was very much in contention for the medals. Wlodarczyk lost time, and Longo Borghini also fell short there.

Vollering, however, showed no signs of slowing down. At the second intermediate point, she was 48 counts faster than Berthet. But had she caught up with Reusser? Not quite. The defending champion had gained more time on the plateau and on the descent: the difference stood at 20 seconds.

Berthet crossed the line and beat Tas’s finishing time: she was a full 51 seconds faster. It was a case of waiting for the other contenders, but the trend continued. Wlodarczyk lost twenty seconds at the finish. Longo Borghini managed to squeeze out a tremendous sprint, but fell six seconds short, meaning Berthet took the bronze.

Vollering finished a full 46 seconds faster than her FDJ-SUEZ team-mate and briefly took the hot seat, but Reusser soon came flying in. She won the European title by finishing 23 seconds ahead of her Dutch rival.

1. Marlen Reusser

2. Demi Vollering

3. Elisa Longo Borghini

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