She now also shines in the mountains: Marlen Reusser's amazing comeback after Long Covid

When she's had another particularly good race, Marlen Reusser sends voice messages to journalists these days. They're messages of pure joy. "I think I've had the day of my life," she said in May, for example, after the queen stage of the Vuelta, narrowly beaten by the world's best climber, Demi Vollering. Or, a few days later after her overall victory at the Tour of Burgos: "It's just cool. I'm incredibly happy. The new team is simply fantastic." The best Swiss female cyclist is now under contract with Movistar.

While Reusser lets her euphoria run wild, her friend and coach Hendrik Werner might be sitting next to her, laughing and shaking his head. After everything that happened in 2024, the situation seems unreal to him. "It's crazy," he says in an interview. Reusser suffered from long Covid for months and missed two of her biggest career goals: the Olympic Games in Paris and the World Championships in Zurich.

Having to forgo racing was the least of her problems at that moment. Werner remembers that it was a mystery whether she would ever get back on a bike. No one even knew whether she would be able to return to work as a doctor, as that profession also entails stress. Even card games became a challenge. Every interaction drained her energy. "Of course, fears arise," says Werner, a sports scientist. "You ask yourself what this means for the rest of your life." Having to accept that you have no control over anything was a stark experience.

A key to her recovery was Reusser's realization that even the smallest stimuli triggered unnecessary defense mechanisms: For no apparent reason, she repeatedly developed fevers or suffered from swollen lymph glands. Werner compares the onset of symptoms and the associated learning process to repeatedly hearing false fire alarms. At the first sound of a siren, you run out of the house in a panic. Once you realize there's no fire, the noise no longer triggers the same discomfort—but that moment is slow to arrive.

The athlete countered her body's false alarms with hypnosis and yoga. "That may sound funny at first," says Werner. But he witnessed how Reusser was able to do things with him again, step by step, no longer had to be overly cautious in everyday life, and even dared to resume training. At some point, Werner says, he thought: "I think Marlen is completely recovered." But he hardly dared to say it out loud. The fear of a relapse was too great.

In November, Reusser published a video describing her recovery, saying, "I feel like I did before." She recommended that other long-COVID patients also try brain retraining, concluding, "Good luck, you can do it."

The Instagram post triggered a shitstorm. Long-term COVID patients accused Reusser of perpetuating the stereotype that the disease is purely a matter of the mind, even as a doctor. The athlete had emphasized that she by no means assumed that the approach described would help everyone. She simply wanted to share her experiences. But in an age of constant outrage and black-and-white thinking, some overlooked the nuances.

Just a month earlier, the 2021 Olympic silver medalist had signed a three-year contract with Movistar. Hendrik Werner is a man who values ​​honesty and communicates with an unusually open approach in the industry. The coach says he warned those in charge that they were "buying a pig in a poke": He couldn't guarantee that Reusser would ever be able to compete in a race in the team uniform. The demonstrative trust shown by the Spaniards gave him and Reusser all the more confidence.

Reusser also felt comfortable with her previous team, SD Worx. Nevertheless, the change served as a catalyst for her development. At the age of 33, she was able to take another step forward: becoming the leader of tours with challenging mountain stages.

Outsiders find it sensational how well the 1.80 meter tall time trial specialist is now performing on steep climbs, for example at the Vuelta, where she outpaced all the other specialists except Vollering on the fearsome road to Lagunas de Neila with gradients of more than nine percent. It seems as if, despite her illness, she is stronger than ever.

Werner emphasizes that he was surprised by the rapid recovery—but by no means by Reusser's mountaineering abilities. When he had previously written sober analyses of how many watts per kilogram of body weight one would need to pedal to be among the best, it was already clear to him: Marlen could do it. She had already climbed very well in 2021 and 2022. However, she often served as a helper at the time, and when the job was completed a few kilometers before the finish, she would fall back. So, Werner understands, the potential was always dormant within her.

Movistar is now fully committed to Reusser in the big races. "They have a clear idea," says Werner. SD Worx, on the other hand, was teeming with female leaders who were often told that the road would decide who would ultimately ride for them. Today's clear conditions are more suited to Reusser, who longs for harmony. They're helping her develop in unexpected ways. Movistar has undergone a rapid transformation: just a few years ago, the Spanish men's team provided Netflix with material for a highly acclaimed series, featuring disputes between its captains. The phase of self-destruction is history.

At the Tour de Suisse, starting on June 12, Reusser will face the last two Tour de France winners, Demi Vollering and Katarzyna Niewiadoma. A full-throttle battle between the world's best is expected. The four-day race on home roads is important to Reusser. However, Werner's training was already focused on his next goal: the Giro d'Italia, starting on July 6. Riders he coaches have already won the Grand Tour race twice, both times against expectations: Tom Dumoulin in 2017 and Jai Hindley in 2022.

After all that has happened, pulling off the coup with his partner Reusser would still be a sensation. Werner says: "We can dream."