Today she celebrates her thirty-fourth birthday but - it's not hard to imagine - Marlen Reusser will try to give herself a gift tomorrow at the end of the World Time Trial in Kigali. After a year with many highs (victory at Vuelta Burgos, Tour de Suisse and national time trial championship, second place at Vuelta Femenina and Giro d'Italia Women) and some lows (withdrawal after a few kilometers from Tour de France Femmes), the Swiss athlete will go hunting for that time trial title that still eludes her.

Reusser, who from 2020 to 2022 won two silver and one bronze medal in the world time trial event, told watson.ch: "After the Tour I had a serious flu, I would have liked to prepare better but I'm sure I'm very fast and can aim for the title".

In the long interview, the native of Jegenstorf talks a lot about herself and states that experience has allowed her to modify some beliefs about training and performance. "When I was young I thought you had to 'martyrize' yourself to be successful, I was convinced that limits were only mental. I trained and pushed myself to the extreme, but I don't do that anymore".

Marlen explains: "Let's be clear, the mental aspect remains fundamental but not as decisive as I used to think. Of course, sometimes you have to work hard and grit your teeth, but being consistent and disciplined in training has greater value. In the end, it's the one who is in the best form who wins".

The talented Swiss also recounts that she had trainers who in the past made her train very hard, but Hendrick Werner, her trainer and partner, has a different philosophy: "He gives me sessions that I can always do, without squeezing me like a lemon. I come from a mentality where you always had to go beyond, overcome limits to progress, and this change, especially at the beginning, made us argue a lot".

Reusser adds: "Obviously I work intensely but not like I did 10 years ago. What happened to me at Alpenbrevet 2015 was crazy. It was 32 degrees, I was dehydrated and had eaten poorly: I passed out".

Marlen's approach to cycling also seems to have been modified by the difficult previous season when health problems forced her away from races for a long period. "I had a forced break due to long Covid which however was not entirely negative. I came back with new momentum, as if I had been offered a new life" she says. And then again: "For now I'm still having fun and I believe I will continue cycling, but I've understood that I have no problem imagining myself doing something else. What? I don't know right now".

For now, the focus is on the world championships and who knows if the newly 34-year-old Swiss won't go and get that much-desired gift tomorrow on the Kigali podium.