Marlen Reusser crashes off the podium on the final stage of the Tour de France Femmes

After her triumph in the time trial on stage 4 and a stint in the maillot jaune during this year’s Tour de France Femmes, Marlen Reusser’s race all came tumbling down on the final stage, as she hit the deck in a crash on the descent of the Col d’Èze with around 60km to go.

The Swiss rider had been third overall in the general classification going into the stage and had a firm grip on a podium position, with an advantage of nearly two minutes over Elisa Longo Borghini in fourth.

However, it was clear that she was beginning to fatigue as the race went on, as after losing the maillot jaune on stage 7 to Mont Ventoux, she then lost further time the following day on the penultimate stage of the race.

On the final stage, which featured a circuit around Nice with ascents of the Col d’Èze on each lap, she looked to be in a strong position with multiple of her Movistar teammates around her, but as they approached the summit of the second ascent she suddenly found herself isolated in the group of favourites.

An infernal pace set by Zoe Bäckstedt in service of her Canyon-SRAM leader Kasia Niewiadoma had whittled down the group to a select number of riders, and it was not long before Reusser also found herself distanced off the back of the group with 67km to go.

As they went over the top of the climb and onto the descent, the gap had grown and Reusser would have to put in a massive effort to get back to the group. Clearly pushing hard to catch back on, she fell through a right-hand corner and found herself on ground, with her podium hopes immediately extinguished.

Fortunately, she seemed to only sustain minor injuries, as she eventually got back on her bike and rejoined the race, with her teammates surrounding her as they came back into Nice. However, it was clear that her general classification challenge was over, as her objective quickly changed to simply finishing the race.