Tour de Suisse 2023 – Stage 2 [FULL STAGE – Individual Time Trial] (ladies)

June 18, 2023

Tour de Suisse 2023 WE – Stage 2 ITT – St. Gallen – Abtwil : 25,7 km

There was a time when the Tour de Suisse was considered the third most prestigious stage race in the world. With its first edition debuting back in 1933, the week-long race has built up a rich history and has seen many of the sport’s most legendary names. Nowadays the race serves as a final tune-up for the Tour de France and typically attracts the other half of the professional peloton that aren’t racing in the Critérium du Dauphiné, another Tour de France warm-up race that often runs in parallel to this one. These two races can also be key for Tour team selections, as riders have often been called up to race La Grande Boucle based on their performances. The Tour de Suisse often starts with a short prologue, followed by a series of stages in the high-mountains. The race is renowned for sending riders up some of the highest altitude climbs in the sport of cycling, like the infamous Umbrail Pass – the highest paved road in Switzerland and a climb that ascends to a dizzying height of 2,501m. The race also often visits the gruelling Furka Pass and legendary St. Gotthard Pass – a road that climbs for more than 50km from some directions and features a staggering 38 switchbacks before its 2,106m-high summit. These three climbs have defined many editions over the race’s 90-year history, with their summits often crowning the overall winner.

European champion Marlen Reusser won the stage 2 time trial at the Tour de Suisse Women, beating her SD Worx teammate Demi Vollering by eight seconds and Elisa Longo Borghini (Trek-Segafredo) by 16 seconds.

The first rider to set a benchmark time was early starter Anna Kiesenhofer (Israel-Premier Tech-Roland). Brodie Chapman (Trek-Segafredo) was the first to beat the Austrian’s time, and this stood until Longo Borghini reached the finish.

The Italian time trial champion had set the best times at both intermediate timing points, but at the finish she was beaten first by Vollering, and then by Reusser. With the stage win, SD Worx’s 21st victory in a row, Reusser also takes the yellow leader’s jersey from her teammate Blanka Vas.

“I have been dreaming of this race for a long time, and of course I was dreaming of winning this ITT and taking the yellow. It’s a brutal discipline, during the race I was thinking … I cannot say it here, you need to bleep, but I am really happy that I won in the end,” said Reusser.

As the last favourite to start, she knew her rivals’ intermediate times, and in the final kilometres, Reusser herself didn’t think she could win.

“I have to be honest, I was thinking, I don’t win it, because I heard Longo Borghini is so close,” she said. “I would say she is the best downhiller we have in the peloton, and I knew that the technical part is coming up.

“I thought she was going to make it, especially because today, with what happened, I didn’t go 100% or was not in a good flow for these dangerous corners. So I understood that maybe I wouldn’t win, I was okay with that, but I made it, and I’m so happy about that,” Reusser added, describing her hesitation in the technical downhill after the passing of Gino Mäder.

How it unfolded
The first Women’s WorldTour time trial of the season started in St. Gallen and finished in Abtwil after 25.7km, using the same course as the final stage of the men’s Tour de Suisse later that same day.

The first part was rolling, followed by a 3km climb to the second timing point and finally a technical descent to the finish.

Olympic Road Race Champion Kiesenhofer’s benchmark of 38:12 minutes stood for over an hour. Her teammate Claire Steels bested the Austrian’s first intermediate time but lost time on the climb and finished 27 seconds slower. Chapman, however, went all-in on the climb and kept her 17-second gap to the finish where she stopped the clock at 37:55 minutes.

Amber Kraak (Jumbo-Visma) also started out fast, beating Steels at the first intermediate time. She was three seconds faster than Kiesenhofer at the finish, slotting in behind Chapman.

Longo Borghini beat Kraak’s intermediate time by 14 seconds and was 48 seconds faster than Chapman after the climb, taking almost a minute off her teammate at the finish with 36:58 minutes.

Reusser was another nine seconds faster than Longo Borghini on the first part but lost time on the climb. She was two seconds behind at the second timing point, with Vollering another four seconds behind.

However, both SD Worx riders took time back on the descent: Vollering beat Longo Borghini with a time of 36:50 minutes before Reusser finished in 36:42 minutes to win the stage and take the leader’s jersey.

Overnight leader Blanka Vas keeps the points jersey and Élise Chabbey the QOM jersey while Ruby Roseman-Gannon (Jayco-AlUla) took the lead in the U23 classification.

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