While it came as no surprise that SD Worx Gent-Wevelgem won, many would have expected the win to come from either Lotte Kopecky or Lorena Wiebes. Instead, Marlen Reusser went solo with 40km to go and was never seen again, winning by a margin of 2:42.
“Sometimes I don’t understand [the] other teams. It’s good for us, but if I were sporting director I would tell my drivers to drive or attack immediately. But nobody did that, so they gave Marlen a few free minutes,” emphasized Kopecky after the race.
While the situation was somewhat chaotic following a mass crash, Reusser — three-time World Championships time trial medalist and Tokyo Olympics time trial silver medalist — belongs to a select group of riders who are extremely dangerous when given any kind of Gap.
Christine Majerus sat on Reusser’s bike when she started the Baneberg and deftly backed up a bit, forcing other riders to cycle around her to get back to Reusser. And when the Swiss all-rounder increased again, she was gone.
“Marlene is super strong. I saw her go climbing and I thought, “Yes, she’s gone”. And we haven’t seen her back. I’m not at all surprised that she won solo. We all know she’s capable of it. It’s very nice for her to win a classic like Gent-Wevelgem,” said Kopecky for her teammate.
The 27-year-old Belgian is no stranger to solo victories herself: After the arrival of top sprinter Wiebes in the team, Kopecky changed her focus and won the Omloop Het Nieuwsblad and Nokere Koerse alone in recent weeks.
And a solo win is still a team effort: when the other teams finally got around to organizing a chase, Kopecky and Majerus tried to interfere and disrupt cohesion to help Reusser. This numerical strength paid off for SD Worx during the Spring Classics.
“It’s a luxury for us. It’s the strength of our team and we’re very happy to be able to do this,” said Kopecky.
The Belgian eventually finished in 69th place after stopping to make sure her teammates Wiebes and Cecchini were okay after a crash at the end of the race.
“Lorena went into the gutter, then she fell and so did Elena Cecchini. I was close behind so I stopped to check because Lorena was actually screaming. I think she was just a little shocked at the end. We’ll see how she hopes she doesn’t have too many injuries,” Kopecky thought to her teammates.