“I was not 100% sure” - Marlen Reusser reveals mid-race doubt despite crushing World Championship rivals by 40 seconds

Marlen Reusser crushed the opposition by more than 40 seconds to retain her World Championship time trial title in Montréal, yet the Swiss star admitted afterwards that she was never entirely convinced she had judged her effort correctly.

Reusser stopped the clock in 50:24.44 on Sunday, beating Great Britain’s Zoe Bäckstedt by 40.11 seconds and Germany’s Franziska Koch by 45.54 seconds. It secured a second successive rainbow jersey against the clock and made the result even sweeter on her 35th birthday.

There had been considerably more uncertainty out on the 39.2-kilometre course. Bäckstedt produced the fastest opening section and reached the first checkpoint after 10.5 kilometres ten seconds ahead of Reusser. By the second intermediate split, however, the defending champion had recovered eight of those seconds.

Reusser was 13 seconds ahead by the third checkpoint and continued opening the gap through the closing kilometres, even catching former SD Worx teammate Demi Vollering on the road despite starting 90 seconds later.

“I was really looking forward to it because it [the course] has so many challenges, like technical aspects, which makes it much more interesting to ride,” Reusser said afterwards. “From a side of pacing and understanding how fast you should go and how you should, also cope with these challenges on the way, I was really nervous. I was not really sure, because we don't have time trials, like this often. It's so long ago that we did, I'm used to doing 20 kilometres.”

The unusually long World Championship test had prompted plenty of discussion before Reusser even reached the start ramp.

At almost 40 kilometres, Montréal offered something very different from the shorter time trials that feature more regularly on the women’s calendar. Alongside the distance came technical sections, rough roads and a rising final 400 metres to the finish.

“We had huge discussions with the team, with the performance coaches about what is a good pace,” Reusser explained. “I was not 100% sure, and also on the course, I was not 100% sure, it was challenging.”

The numbers told the story of how strongly she finished. After conceding ten seconds to Bäckstedt over the opening 10.5 kilometres, Reusser gained almost a minute on the Briton across the remainder of the course.

Bäckstedt nevertheless secured the first elite World Championship time trial medal of her career with silver, five seconds ahead of Koch. Elisa Longo Borghini missed bronze by less than five seconds, with Cédrine Kerbaol completing the top five. Vollering, one of the biggest names among the late starters, finished eighth at 1:49.94 after losing significant time early.

Reusser's victory also produced a piece of World Championship history. No woman had previously won an elite world title on her birthday, although Bäckstedt achieved the feat at junior level four years earlier.

For Reusser, it came exactly a year after finally winning the elite individual time trial rainbow jersey for the first time. She arrived in Montréal wearing number one and left Canada still in possession of the jersey after the most dominant ride of the medal contenders. “It's a good present,” Reusser said of celebrating her 35th birthday with another world title. “I also thought, win or not, I have something to celebrate.”

The celebrations ultimately included rather more than a birthday cake. Reusser had started the afternoon uncertain about how to pace one of the longest time trials she had faced in years and finished it with a second rainbow jersey and a 40-second advantage over everyone else.