Last year, Movistar's Marlen Reusser came to the Tour of Flanders as one of four possible options for SD Worx, in a team practically built around the Classics. She would go on to crash out of that race and then experience one of her hardest seasons yet, but she's back in full health and promising spirits ahead of this Sunday.
This year, after a 2024 that was totally derailed by chronic illness, Reusser wasn't even meant to be targetting the Spring Classics, but after an impressive start to the year that surprised even herself, she can now be counted among the Flanders contenders.
At Movistar, her new team this year, the Swiss rider doesn't have to battle against three other riders for leadership, which is both freeing and a source of a little extra pressure for Reusser.
"At SD Worx, it's really different. They're a Dutch team with Belgian sponsors; they are born here, so for them, the Classics are the thing. The team is also really strong for the Classics," Reusser explained to Cyclingnews on Thursday.
"Whereas Movistar is a Spanish team, their identity is maybe less the Classics, more the GC races, more the Spanish races, and the team is also built a bit differently. So I think it's very different, and for me, my role changes. In SD Worx, as you know, we always had numbers. I think Flanders was the craziest with having Demi, Lotte, Lorena and me with four leaders. I think that's something so special, and we never said we go for you or you, it was just whoever can do it would do it.
"But here it's pretty clear roles – it's Liane and me as leaders, we get the full support of the team. And I really enjoy this. I'm not so long in cycling, and I just know the other side, like before I just helped and then I was a co-leader and now to really get that role and the full support and trust, and being able to save myself and try in the moment something I want to try is really a big privilege I'm really enjoying."
Despite now being in a team that has less focus and attention on them during the Classics, that doesn't mean there's less pressure for Reusser going into these races.
"It's more the opposite," she explained. "In SD Worx, it was more who of us is going to take it today, so I was really never worried. Not in an arrogant way, but I was never thinking, 'can we win it? How can we win it?'.
"It was more like, 'can I win it somehow?'. Here it's more pressure because I'm one of two leaders and the expectations are high, so of course it's a different situation, actually with more pressure."
Alongside Liane Lippert and with the support of riders like Cat Ferguson and Floortje Mackaij, Reusser will head into Sunday's race as a clear leader and a rider to watch after her attacking ride at Dwars door Vlaanderen on Wednesday. But this isn't always how her year was going to look.
Initially, her plans were going to revolve around stage racing further down the line – the Giro d'Italia and the time trial at the World Championships were and are key goals – but a better-than-expected start to the year, which included a win at the Trofeo Palma only three months after she started training again, put the Spring Classics back on the map.
"It's somehow incredible," Reusser recalled of being able to win again so soon. "I'm really gifted with this body.
"Of course, Flanders is kind of a focus, and it became a focus when we saw how far I am already," she continued. "I was sick the whole last year, so when we spoke the first time about the calendar, it was more like 'will I be able to race at all? And how far can I get?' But then, of course, we've seen I progressed so much faster than we could have expected, so slowly you start making plans and you think maybe if it's going well I can do this and that.
"Now we see I'm not in a bad shape. I think it's not impossible that I can win on Sunday. Of course you have it in your mind and you try something," she added. "I didn't do crazy altitude, so I think others are more progressed in their preparation and are more ready. We didn't set a target here and really prepare it like crazy; it's in the whole progress and process that I'm going through, and I take the maximum now I can take."
After Flanders, Reusser will skip Roubaix – she's only started it once, climbing off before the cobbles even began and expressing her dislike for riding in the wheel on the pavé – and then head onto the Ardennes, races she says she doesn't like but she performs well in, nonetheless.
From there, eyes will be on the Giro and the Tour de Suisse before going after a long-awaited rainbow jersey in Rwanda.
"Still I would say my shape is really good, but I think we didn't work on all the screws yet," she said. "I don't know if I ever fully focus on the Classics; some riders really do focus fully, but my goal this year is some stage races. I think the Giro this year is a really big thing for me and later the ITT at Worlds, so I still have buttons that I can push."
Even if Reusser's shape isn't quite at its top level yet, Wednesday's racing proved that her desire to get in amongst the action is very much alive, something she's hoping for more of at the weekend after some slightly less exciting races so far this spring.
"That last race that I watched, I was a bit surprised how conservative people were riding," she pondered. "I was surprised, especially San Remo, Nieuwsblad. I'm used to having more active racing in women's cycling. I am asking myself what kind of Flanders this is going to be. Is everybody going to wait to the sprint, or is somebody going to make some moves? I'm curious to see how it goes."
Of course, one of the biggest questions will be how Reusser can shape up against her rivals on Sunday, some of whom happen to be her former teammates, or even former DSs in the case of Anna van der Breggen.
For a rider who just loves to race, though, this is far from a worry and is indeed a source of excitement ahead of the big Monument race.
"I really enjoy it," she said. "Sometimes people don't understand, but I say if we played cards on the table, I can do it with my best friends and fight really hard and get angry and go full gas but still be best friends, and it's the same with sport. To have the game be full on and to have nice competition, and it be spread throughout the team with many adversaries, I really enjoy this situation, and I really enjoy racing against them."
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