Marlen Reusser started stage 9 of the Tour de France Femmes hoping to defend her spot on the podium and round off a successful, happy week, but ended it hurt and in tears as being dropped and then crashing cost her not only the top three, but the top 10 too.

Reusser was already dropped on the second ascent of the Col d’Èze, but any hopes of limiting her losses also came crashing down when she came off on a tricky corner and watched any dream of third place ride away from her.

Her whole Movistar squad rallied around her and rode with her for the whole rest of the stage, letting the time just go out rather than trying to salvage something, but by the time she finished – bashed up and in tears – she had lost over 24 minutes and tumbled to 14th overall.

The effects of the crash were minor, but the heartbreak of going from the yellow jersey on stage 6 to third coming into the final day, then out of the top 10 was clearly going to leave more of a scar.

“I think crash-wise she’s OK,” Movistar DS Kelvin Dekker told Eurosport at the finish.

“It wasn’t a high-speed crash or anything. She took the corner a bit weird, and then I think this little bump in the middle, she crashed over that one. She was mainly at that moment really disappointed because she saw the podium getting away of course, and then on the ground she was fully realising that it would be gone.

“So this was mainly the reason why she was longer on the ground and just being really sad and disappointed. I think that’s the feeling that will stay a bit longer than the wounds from the crash.”

Even though it ended in disaster, Reusser’s race was far from disappointing overall, as she won the time trial stage and spent three days in the yellow jersey, making it clear to absolutely everyone that she was a contender for not just the podium but the win.

Had it not been for her crash, she might have been able to defend her third spot from Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team L’IMAD), who started the day nearly two minutes down on Reusser.

“We had two weeks of a lot of fun, up until three o’clock today more or less. Up until then, it was a really nice week, and today we lost big, but you can only lose big if you first have something and if you truly care about it and we all truly cared about it a lot,” Dekker said.

“It’s been a long journey to get here. Like I said, we can only lose it if we had it first, we had an amazing week, three days in yellow, a stage win and a lot of great memories, and today a bit less nice.

Fourteenth in the end won’t do much to dent Reusser’s status as a GC rider, given her previous podium performances in Grand Tours, and she will likely – eventually – take confidence and heart from her performance this week.

But more so than that, Movistar will look back on this Tour as one where they took a team perhaps not filled with as many big names as other squads and really united behind a common goal, taking a step closer to winning yellow again, which they last did in 2022 with Annemiek van Vleuten.

“We do things really well as a team, in all races but also here, I think everyday we did so well. We got a lot of energy from how Marlen was doing, got a lot of energy from how everything was going well for us. I’m so incredibly proud of all of them. They did everyday so good,” Dekker said.

As a teary Reusser made her way back to the bus, there was a sense of warmth and shared feelings at the Movistar bus, with riders and DS’s offering each other comfort and kindness, rather than any element of frustration. Sometimes, how you deal with the losses means more than how you celebrate the wins.

“People were telling us that we had a weak team, but I think they showed how strong they were also today, in the beginning when we were all still there, and then this happened and it’s just sad,” Dekker said.

“There’s only so much we can do as a team to help her, but we start as a team, we finish as a team, and in the end we had everyone there with her to support her mentally and get her over the line. But of course the girls are just as disappointed, as she is, as I am, as everyone is.”

Support our unrivalled coverage of the Tour de France Femmes and women’s cycling by subscribing to Cyclingnews. In return, you get unlimited access to high-quality journalism, with breaking news, race analysis, and expert insight from inside the women’s peloton. Plus, the Cyclingnews app lets you follow the action wherever you go! Join today.

Marlen Reusser started stage 9 of the Tour de France Femmes hoping to defend her spot on the podium and round off a successful, happy week, but ended it hurt and in tears as being dropped and then crashing cost her not only the top three, but the top 10 too.

Reusser was already dropped on the second ascent of the Col d’Èze, but any hopes of limiting her losses also came crashing down when she came off on a tricky corner and watched any dream of third place ride away from her.

Her whole Movistar squad rallied around her and rode with her for the whole rest of the stage, letting the time just go out rather than trying to salvage something, but by the time she finished – bashed up and in tears – she had lost over 24 minutes and tumbled to 14th overall.

The effects of the crash were minor, but the heartbreak of going from the yellow jersey on stage 6 to third coming into the final day, then out of the top 10 was clearly going to leave more of a scar.

“I think crash-wise she’s OK,” Movistar DS Kelvin Dekker told Eurosport at the finish.

“It wasn’t a high-speed crash or anything. She took the corner a bit weird, and then I think this little bump in the middle, she crashed over that one. She was mainly at that moment really disappointed because she saw the podium getting away of course, and then on the ground she was fully realising that it would be gone.

“So this was mainly the reason why she was longer on the ground and just being really sad and disappointed. I think that’s the feeling that will stay a bit longer than the wounds from the crash.”

Even though it ended in disaster, Reusser’s race was far from disappointing overall, as she won the time trial stage and spent three days in the yellow jersey, making it clear to absolutely everyone that she was a contender for not just the podium but the win.

Had it not been for her crash, she might have been able to defend her third spot from Elisa Longo Borghini (UAE Team L’IMAD), who started the day nearly two minutes down on Reusser.

“We had two weeks of a lot of fun, up until three o’clock today more or less. Up until then, it was a really nice week, and today we lost big, but you can only lose big if you first have something and if you truly care about it and we all truly cared about it a lot,” Dekker said.

“It’s been a long journey to get here. Like I said, we can only lose it if we had it first, we had an amazing week, three days in yellow, a stage win and a lot of great memories, and today a bit less nice.

Fourteenth in the end won’t do much to dent Reusser’s status as a GC rider, given her previous podium performances in Grand Tours, and she will likely – eventually – take confidence and heart from her performance this week.

But more so than that, Movistar will look back on this Tour as one where they took a team perhaps not filled with as many big names as other squads and really united behind a common goal, taking a step closer to winning yellow again, which they last did in 2022 with Annemiek van Vleuten.

“We do things really well as a team, in all races but also here, I think everyday we did so well. We got a lot of energy from how Marlen was doing, got a lot of energy from how everything was going well for us. I’m so incredibly proud of all of them. They did everyday so good,” Dekker said.

As a teary Reusser made her way back to the bus, there was a sense of warmth and shared feelings at the Movistar bus, with riders and DS’s offering each other comfort and kindness, rather than any element of frustration. Sometimes, how you deal with the losses means more than how you celebrate the wins.

“People were telling us that we had a weak team, but I think they showed how strong they were also today, in the beginning when we were all still there, and then this happened and it’s just sad,” Dekker said.

“There’s only so much we can do as a team to help her, but we start as a team, we finish as a team, and in the end we had everyone there with her to support her mentally and get her over the line. But of course the girls are just as disappointed, as she is, as I am, as everyone is.”

Support our unrivalled coverage of the Tour de France Femmes and women’s cycling by subscribing to Cyclingnews. In return, you get unlimited access to high-quality journalism, with breaking news, race analysis, and expert insight from inside the women’s peloton. Plus, the Cyclingnews app lets you follow the action wherever you go! Join today.