Reusser lashes out at fellow World Championship chasers: 'I was the only one racing for gold'

Reusser is someone who doesn’t mince words. After finishing fourth, she’s completely honest. “Fourth place is a ticket to compete for first place. I feel like I was the only one racing to win,” she says, sounding immediately frustrated in an interview with Eurosport. “At the crucial moment, I ran out of energy gels, so I was preoccupied with that. That was really stupid, so I missed the crucial moment. But after that, I thought: let’s go for gold.”

According to the 35-year-old Swiss rider, the teamwork behind Vollering wasn’t up to par. And that frustrated her immensely. “I feel like there were a lot of teammates, and that everyone was riding for second place,” she says, referring to the mix of brand teams and national teams. “That’s the feeling I have now; I’ll have to watch it again. But we were racing for silver.”

Harsh words, but Reusser isn’t done yet. “When someone like Demi breaks away, you have to work together, or the race is over. I showed total dedication, and most of the others didn’t. Puck (Pieterse, ed.) is, of course, the only one who didn’t have to, and she tried to annoy me a little, which is fine. The rest had a very good reason to work.”

The world time-trial champion is also trying to take a hard look at herself, but her frustration is clear. “It was my choice, my mistake. But I know that if I don’t do anything, nothing will happen. So then Demi will win. It’s tough. It’s better if I don’t miss the move next time. That’s better,” she adds.

Things then got incredibly exciting in the final few hundred meters. For a moment, it looked like Reusser might catch up to Vollering and Niewiadoma on the final uphill stretch. “I knew all I could do was give it my all on that final climb and hope they’d keep an eye on each other. It was close with Elisa, but it was just too much for me at that moment. Congratulations,” she said, sounding somewhat cynical as she wrapped up.