The Swiss Nino Schurter and Lars Forster win the first stage of the Swiss Epic Graubünden multi-stage mountain bike race. Behind them, Italians Fabian Rabensteiner and Samuele Porro are in second place, Austrian Daniel Geismayr and his German team-mate Ben Zwiehoff are in third place. For women, Annika Langvad/Haley Batten (DEN/USA) won ahead of Swiss Sina Frei/Nicole Koller and German Stefanie Dohrn/Elisabeth Brandau.
Grisons Nino Schurter and St. Gallen Lars Forster (SCOTT-SRAM Team) celebrate a clear opening victory at the second Swiss Epic in Grisons. After Laax's first long climb over Crap Sogn Gion, the 2019 Cape Epic winners were still in second place behind Daniel Geismayr and Ben Zwiehoff (Team Centurion Vaude). “As cross-country specialists, we're not used to such long ascents,” said Schurter at the finish line. “We didn't want to burn ourselves too much, but we managed to keep the backlog within limits.”
In the following long downhill, the two Swiss then played to their strengths, took the lead and did not give it up again. After 60 kilometers and 2,500 meters difference in altitude, they won in Laax with 1 minute and 19 seconds ahead of the Italians Fabian Rabensteiner/Samuele Porro (TREK Pirelli), who prevailed against Geismayr/Zwiehoff in the final sprint. “It was tailor-made for us,” summarized Nino Schurter.
For women, the two Zurich-based women Sina Frei and Nicole Koller (Swiss Cycling Team) drove a strong race and led for a time. But then Sina Frei was extremely unlucky and crashed twice.
She cut her knee and presumably bruised her thigh. Nevertheless, she finished the stage with Nicole Koller and finished in a good second place, a good 8 minutes behind the winners Annika Langvad (DEN)/Haley Batten (USA) (Team Specialized - Racing). The Germans Nina Benz and Kim Ames (jb Brunex Felt Factory Team) came in third place behind the Swiss women.
Results: 18.08.20, stage 1, Laax—Laax, 60 km
Men
- Nino Schurter/Lars Forster, SCOTT-SRAM, 03:01:09
- Fabian Rabensteiner/Samuele Porro, Trek-Pirelli 1, + 1:19
- Daniel Geismayr/Ben Zwiehoff, Centurion Vaude, + 1:25
- Martin Frey/Simon Schneller, BULLS Youngsters, + 7:10
- Kristian Hynek/ Martin Stosek, Future Cycling Northwave Team, + 7:25
- Urs Huber/Simon Stiebjahn, BULLS Heroes, + 8:49
- Casey South/Noah Blöchlinger, BMC Fischer, + 8:49
- Sebastian Fini/Martiņš Blums, CST Post.nl Bafang, + 9:26
- Juri Ragnoli/Cristian Cominelli, SCOTT Italy, + 9:31
- Andreas Seewald/Markus Kaufmann, TEXPA-SIMPLON, + 11:43
Women
- Annika Langvad/Haley Batten, Specialized - Racing, 03:48:57
- Sina Frei/Nicole Koller, Swiss Cycling Team, + 8:02
- Nina Benz/Kim Ames, JB Brunex Felt Factory Team, + 9:26
- Ariane Lüthi/ Alice Pirard, Andermatt Spur, + 9:39
- Stefanie Dohrn/Elisabeth Brandau, Centurion-Vaude Radon, + 13:02
- Linda Indergand/Karla Stepanova, Maloja Pushbikers MTB, + 14:51
- Sophie von Berswordt-Wallrabe/Jacqueline Schneebeli, jb Brunex Felt Factory Team 2, + 24:08
- Corina Gantenbein/Hielke Elferink, Davos Klosters, + 28:35
- Charline Fragnière/Chrystelle Baumann, Welsche, + 37:50
- Vera Adrian/Zina Barhoumi, Scatta Ladies, + 40:12
Detailed results by categories: www.swiss-epic.com/results/