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Mont Ventoux looks set to be the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift decider.
The gap between race leader Marlen Reusser (Movistar) and closest rival Demi Vollering (FDJ United-Suez) is just 12 seconds, barely 80 meters on the 21-kilometer climb which concludes stage 7 Friday.
“It makes it spicy, it makes it interesting, not only for you [media] and the public, also for us,” Reusser said in her post-race press conference.
“I think it’s crucial tomorrow, but then it keeps going. I think you have to stand in Nice at the end and then be in yellow.” 2024 winner Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney (Canyon-SRAM) is also lurking in third, 1:17 behind.
Reusser rode Mont Ventoux for the first and only time “some weeks ago”.
“I like it, that kind of climb was suiting me more than the ones we did before. It’s going to be brutal, 100 per cent,” she said.
The Swiss cut a calm figure, saying that she had only heard about possible winds on the climb and that she didn’t know the strategy for the next day.
Down to descending
Thursday’s sixth stage between Montbrison and Tournon-sur-Rhône might not have seen any time change for the top three contenders on GC, but it was far from straightforward or worry-free for the race leader.
Reusser hinted that her descending was put under pressure, almost overshooting a corner down the final categorized climb of the Côte de Boucieu-le-Roi.
“Sometimes I do sketchy corners, but I was good. I made it. It was under control, a bit [on the] limit sometimes,” she said.
“I think some people tried to do something today,” she said. “That’s why I tried so much to be in front: because if there’s one split, you’re in yellow and you’re not there, the motivation to pull it through is there.
“So today I was not afraid of the uphills, I was [like] ‘I shouldn’t be on the back foot in the downhill because it would be sad to motivate people’. It’s a waste of energy, so I think mission completed.”
From Vollering helper to hurter
34-year-old Reusser’s journey into the yellow jersey comes after years of domestique work for SD Worx and her current main rival for victory before joining Movistar Team in 2025.
“Demi was the leader for the Tour de France; 2022 and 2023 was Demi. I very generously got the Tour de Suisse, if I was faster in the TT,” she said.
“Then 2024, I had long Covid, I was not racing. It was more the question: how will I come back? How strong? And then ‘25, I had my own leader’s role.”
Second at the Vuelta last May made her see that “everything is possible”. However, her 2025 Giro ended with a bad gastrointestinal infection and an early Tour abandon with ill health.
This year is the first time that the world time trial champion has had a clean run at the Tour de France Femmes.
A giant day on the Tour de France Femmes
Mont Ventoux has been looming large on the horizon since the start in Lausanne as the hardest climb in the race’s short history.
Yet the yellow jersey still seems to weigh lightly on the shoulders of Marlen Reusser. The race leader spoke at length to the press and seemed relaxed, even 24 hours before taking on the HC horror of the “Giant of Provence”.
“Sometimes I have the feeling people – and also my competitors – sometimes take cycling very, very serious,” she said. “Like everything in life, it’s just a fun thing to do.
“It’s just a bike race. I’m maybe not as crazy about these things like others. I’m ok, actually.”
“See you hopefully tomorrow,” she said over her shoulder as she walked away from the race leader’s press conference in Tournon-sur-Rhône for her date with destiny.
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