Ride history. Conquer nature.
Stage 1 of the Swiss Epic launches from Davos into epic trails—an exhilarating mix of flow and technical riding through towering peaks and deep forests. Pass Monstein, Europe’s highest brewery village, then tackle the dramatic Zügenschlucht gorge with its narrow bridges and ancient cliffs. Pass over the Wiesnerviadukt before climbing to the high-alpine Albulapass at 2,324 m. The reward: a thrilling descent on the Albulatrail into La Punt. A true alpine adventure—epic trails, stunning views, and raw mountain spirit.
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Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Good morning everybody. Welcome to the 2024 Swift. Always exciting because yeah, the landscape, everything, trails, everything is super amazing. And uh I can’t wait to hit all this nice stuff. Swiss Alps is as we know such a beautiful part of this world, the mountain range and that we give the people the opportunity to enjoy I think the trails will also be perfect. So, um it will be a great week and uh we will enjoy it. It’s the beginning of the end. Stage 5, 62 km, 20. The downhill was so funny. That made my day. It was really nice. And the landscape, look, the landscape is amazing. It’s so beautiful here. The eyes Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. And it’s good morning from DVOS. Welcome to the 2025 Spa Swiss Epic. 5 days of jaw-dropping alpine scenery and high octane racing unfolding right here in the heart of Grab Bundon. I am Neil Gardner and I’ll be with you throughout the week joined by my Swiss colleagues Dario Linder. He’s down on the line with the riders and later Roman Doppler who will be speaking to us in Roman. And we watch as the world’s elite mountain bikers tackle 307 km of trail and a staggering 9,450 m of climbing and not forgetting the 10,000 m over 10,000 m of pulse pounding descending. The 2025 edition kicks off today, August 13th, with stage 1 launching the field from Davos and heading to La Point. Over these 5 days, we’ll not only be scaling Alpine Peaks, we conquering the Alps in the rugged wilderness and the panoramic views. We’re taking in world famous trails, the best of Grab Bundon, and we’ll be exploring these charming villages and also enjoying top-notch Swiss hospitality. And we’re going to be hearing from Daario and the riders down on the line in just a moment. So the tracking is right now. Yes. Everything set for the stage today. Okay. So second year Swiss Epic second win this edition. Yeah. Not a newbie anymore. Yeah. Um, I mean that would be uh, yeah, amazing to to win another one in the second year. That would be a dream. But, uh, I think this year the the opponents are stronger and yeah, every race starts from from zero. So, uh, let’s see. Did you change something case of last year? So, different training especially for the Swiss Epic. Uh, no, actually not. Um, same partner uh again with with Luke, an extreme experienced guy. Uh, very grateful to have him as a partner again. But no, I think we made the same mistakes again. No, just a very short before the Swiss Epic, we decide, yeah, we we go again. So, Luke maybe didn’t have the best preparation for himself, but uh yeah, this guy is just extremely strong, so experienced. So, I’m not worried about him. Title defender and uh four or three time winner. Three time. So, four time after this week. We will see. Hope so. Yeah. So, your partner said your preparation was not that good. Uh it was good in the time I was on the bike, but off the bike was not good. It was too busy. Yeah. But uh you’re getting older and you’re getting used to it. So you’re very experienced. That’s a big advantage for for your team at once again. Oh yeah, definitely. On the on the on the track, we have a lot of experience. Um I know the region. I know the trails. Um I know exactly how the race is going uh the most of the time. But uh yeah, this this gives a bit of advantage. But uh you need to pedal. So it’s for everyone the same. Yeah. And it’s a hard padded real strong opponents this year. Yeah. This year is a bit a bit bigger field as well and stronger field. So let’s see. Yeah. Well, Daliman, another edition of the Swiss Epic. Whoa. You going for the will or for stage wins? No, we tried to to go for the win. Yeah. But let’s see if we have the legs first. Uh I know that this is a super hard race and I’m not especially a climber so it’s a quite a difficult race for me but it’s a dream to to win it once. Yeah. So we will try. So you looking after the time trial so that would be probably something for you guys not. Yeah we had a super good time trial in Cape Epic and I think it will be quite similar. So would be nice if we could do it again here. Yeah. And looking at the start list, it is a stacked field once again at the 2025 edition of the Spar Swiss Epic. And the defending champions, Schmidt and Fluker. Can they do it again? Can Flukiger turn back the clock is 41year-old and take his fourth Sparos Epic title? Alaman and Stozek Buff Megumo are the favorites on paper. Alaman an accomplished rider. You saw him in his national championships jerseys. He’s also been the European champion and Martin Stozac, a worthy partner of the of the Belgian. And a little bit further down the list, we see some local names and never discount the uh value of local knowledge on these trails. There are some tricky downhills and some vertigenous ascents. So, local knowledge will play into the favor of the Swiss riders. Now cast memories back to the 2024 edition. We had the Sampereezy brothers having a fantastic performance winning stage 1 and we expect to see great things from them this year. They are the protagonists to the Buff Megamo, the favorites. And we also expect to see big things from Topata Kenda FSA. That’s Fabian Ravensteiner, a wellknown exponent of mountain bike stage racing, riding with Casey South, the Swiss champion in the foreground. Wishing everyone luck. the ever sports the sportsmanship of Lucas Flukiger. He’s in his 20th year as an elite rider. And they set off on their journey today. 78 km they have to cover and 2,000 over 2,000 m of climbing of today’s stage. And to be exact, it’s 2,2,400 m of climbing and 2,250 m of descent. So, a little bit of a net uh net loss there. They have to climb more than they get to descend as they head off on the trails out of DVOS and towards La Point where we’re sitting right now on the finish line waiting for the riders. 78 km to go and uh today looks like an exhilarating mix of the flow and technical trails. through the towering peaks and the deep forests. And they’ll be followed by the Bulls Media ebikes. We’re on board with them right now. And it’s a unique way of covering this race. A riders eye view of seeing exactly what they’re going through. And we also get the best seats in the house, spectating this competitive mountain bike stage race as they head off on the on the trails heading towards the first big climb of the day, the Ishop Trail. just the climb just before the ISO trail and they will be reaching the first water point at just before the 25 km mark and will be receiving some time splits. This was earlier today and we saw a large group heading out of town heading out of DVOS heading into Leont and the group all together with all the protagonists. We expect the action to really happen on the penultimate climb just before the big climb up to Alba Pass. Take a look at the start list of the women’s category. Monica Calderon, Tessa Corticass, they had a dominant performance winning every stage in 2024. And the Colombian and the Dutch national looking very strong but they will be challenged by Rose of Vandon and Janina Vo Vist a local rider and uh this is the team from Buff Meamo. The challenge will certainly come from Vera Loza and Lexus Guard the American Loza having won the Spar Swiss Epic guiding the Spar Swiss Epic rookie. Welcome to Swiss Epic. So, this is the 10 second warm up. Yeah. To warm up for Albula pass. It’s a hard one. The Albula. Is it your favorite one in this edition? Yeah, I really like Fula and Albula are my favorite climbs here. So, let’s enjoy. Is that a new one? The scarves? Yes. It’s quite slippery on the track, so watch out. Okay, good. Thank you. Go straight over to Rosa. Oh, that’s the hard part of the warm up, Rosa. Yeah, I know. Just warming up a bit. So, you just won the Andor edition of the epic series. So, um another win here in Switzerland for you. We hope it will be super nice, especially on this course. So, did you check out all the the whole course? No, no, I did only the first part of today. But you have a local with you. Yes. So, have a good one the whole week. Thank you so much. Good. So, back in business after last year’s swim, so you got to defend the title. Yeah, that’s what we’re here for. Only for that? No. More to enjoy the trails and to do what we love. So, you arrived last Wednesday in this area. Did you figure out some of the trails? Uh, I don’t think the trails of the of the race because we stayed in Glens. So, I took a card of the cable cars and I went up with the cable cars and down with the bike. That’s all I did last week. Different story this week. Now it’s all going up. Yeah, but neither down with the cable car. Welcome to the start line position. Calderon the Colombian national and also in her own right a multiple national champion and a worthy partner for Tessa Corticass. Rosa Fanduran again another national champion lined up at the start riding with Yanina V and looking to live up to the promise of the young Dutch woman coming into her own really and had a breakthrough race in European championships winning the European Championships and we expect great things from this pairing. And they set off on their journey today. It is a 78 km. Same for the men. 2,400 meters of climbing. And with it all culminating on the elbow pass. And we’ll know even at the first time check just how things are going to play out. That’s the biggest clue so far that we’ve noticed in the race. When we see the riders at the first time check, we get a fair picture of how the week is going to play out. It’s a It’s a strange thing looking at uh at uh at the first stage because today’s stage is in fact the longest stage with the most amount of climbing throughout the week. So, a bit of a baptism of fire for them and they head out. See them snaking their way out on the roads. stacked field of women’s riders. Now I want you to final four minutes to go again. We’re joined we’re being brought these beautiful pictures of the town of DVOS and we’ll be uh crossing live to the Bulls Media ebikes throughout the throughout the day and in fact throughout the week and they’re bringing us the best seats in the house. The ultimate spectator viewpoint for all of us fans of mountain biking. watching Stefan S and Thomas Ditch on the Bulls media ebikes bringing us live pictures. A little bit about the route today. The uh route from DVOS into La Point brings us an exhilarating mix of both the flow and the technical trails through the towering peaks and the deep forests characterized by the deep forests and pass Monstein Europe’s highest brewery village. And they’ll be tackling the dramatic uh gorgees and narrow bridges and ancient cliffs. And they’ll be passing over the Viznner Vodok before climbing up to the high alpine Albula pass at 2,324 m and the just reward thrilling descent on the Alba trail into La Point. It’s a true alpine adventure. Epic trails, stunning views, and that raw mountain spirit as they conquer the Alps. And also about to conquer the Alps are the amateur riders in the field. This is a true prom and event. The amateurs can test themselves on the very same trails on the same route and the same amount of days as the top professionals. They get to measure themselves against uh some of the finest athletes in the world. And these many of these riders dedicate much of their spare time to training on the bike and off the bike so they can get do get to experience what it’s like to ride through this most spectacular alpine scenery. And we keep saying the phrase conquer the Alps. Right now with the women’s field and it’s still very much all together. We expect the major action to happen on the uh on the main climb of the day, the Alba pass, but surely things will string out before we get to that point. Can be quite stressful for some of the top riders with the risk of crashing and the risk of getting tangled up in some of the uh some of the slower riders. So what generally tends to happen is on the first few climbs the top riders push the pace and just try to thin out the field and eliminate some of the risk out there on the trails. Generally the best uh best position any top rider can be in in mountain bike stage racing is out on their own. Especially in trails like these less risk means more likelihood of making it to the finish in one piece. It’s not just about firepower. It’s not just about descending ability. It’s about knowing how to uh play this race from a tactical point of view. And we can see there, this is a view of earlier today tracking the Giant Factory Off-Road, Scott Racing, Topata, Kender, FSA, and KTM Sparta. The Sabarzi brothers back for revenge after last year’s disappointment. The names we see on the leaderboard right out front leading the way. Lilo and Kun, the giant team having a surprise performance here. We’re looking forward to seeing how they fare throughout the uh throughout the week. The 23 23-year-old paired with the Cyclacross rider, former Cyclacross champion is looking to stamp his mark on the Spar Swiss Epic. Just looking down the list, a big 15 riders in the front group. Little bit of a gap back to uh back to the 16th rider and 15 riders in the group. C. Very stressful time for the top professionals. And then 63 km to go mark. We’re only 45 minutes, just under 45 minutes into the racing and we are already seeing some gaps in the field and that is characteristic of this race. As we said earlier, the professionals really like to push the pace on the climbs and get an advantage and try to thin out the field where there is less risk, less chance of any crashes, less chance of uh of that jostling that that happens in the field. You can see passing the traditional Swiss villages and the alpine scenery and the deep forest that they’ll be heading into in just a moment. Now this morning they did towards the end of the week today. They’re heading out to La Point. But when they left Das, they left town at 560 m into the Dar Alps and DVOS is the highest town in Europe and stretches across the Langbasa river comprises the historic villages of Davos Plus and Das in history and DVOS was first documented in 20. And we’ve said it before, the Samperezes are out for revenge. Samperees won stage one of 2024. They were in the yellow jerseys, but through a dramatic week, they lost those jerseys and made good on the final stage, the grand finale, they happened to win it, but it wasn’t enough to snatch back the lead from Fluko and Schmidt. We’re going to keeping you updated throughout the day in fact and throughout the week with time checks at the various time time split points. Just having a look at the uh next service station that we should be mark at uh 24 km mark. We will see exactly how the race is playing out. Hopefully we’ll get a chance to cross to the Bulls media ebikes for some live commentary out on the field. And here from the riders, the Bulme ebike riders with the best seats in the house exactly how it’s going down on the ground. Ravensteiner and Casey South, the Swiss champion riding in the front and the Saber brothers, Sabereezy brothers are in close attendance. Oh, they made good time. And at the 35 km mark, we expected not to see them here so soon. But the 35 km mark after almost an hour and a half of racing Schmidt and Fluker, Ravenstein and South and Gayrier, Gerri and Bootyoffer riding with Adaman Stoz all in the same group. Sephr and Goria and Bill and Dupress having a great day out the two French riders. Just looking at the time splits. There are 16 teams through that time check out in the lead in that large elite group and expect to see that split up towards the end of the race towards the end of the stage today. and uh some big names in the sport. Still in that group to see the surprise performance of the Giants team. Giant factory offro Lilo and Kevin Lilo a well-known already well-known under23 rider and Kevin the cyclacross rider. He’s been cyclross champion of Switzerland before and also having ridden on the road too. Alo performing well in the under23 circuit both at Xio and at XEM. XCO referring to shortc course cross country and XM the marathon discipline too. We expect to see more things from the giant factory off-road team from the Swiss pairing. Just going down that list of favorites and we’ve all been uh amongst ourselves here. We’ve been uh speculating as to who will win the 2020 2025 edition and all eyes have been on the buff Mega Mo team, but also let’s give some attention to Cleatiza Orbeia. Mark Stutzman and Samuel Porro are poised on form and they’re ready to uh take on the very best. We spoke a while ago about Fabian Ravensteider riding with Casey South. He was a teammate of Samuel Porus. So they know each other very well. They were teammates and now they are rivals and we are expecting to see how that plays out. Samuel Porro, a new team for him riding for Cleatiza Orbia. He’s been riding with the Italian outfit for many years and now a fresh change, a fresh team for the Italian. Well, we’d love to hear from Stefan S out on the course and he can tell us exactly how it’s been going, how the tactics have been playing out and how the riders are doing out on the course. Apologies for the lack of audio there. We heard Stefan moments ago, but uh we’re going to wait to hear from him. She’s us the go-ahehead. He’ll give us some commentary from the course and such a unique way to hear about a unique way to spectate this race from the Bulls Media ebikes. Stefan S, a three-time winner of the Abs Cape Epic. And who better than to navigate these trails behind the very best riders in the world himself having been one of the best rid in the world is able to handle the Bulls media ebike through these tricky trails. Bit of a bottleneck there on one of the corners. Bit of a tricky section where the riders have to dismount. And this does play into the tactics because see the riders at the front get a chance to accelerate out and that elastic band does stretched. The riders at the back don’t seem too concerned. They know they’ve got a chance to catch up and the gap isn’t too great. As long as elastic band doesn’t stretch too much, they’ll be fine. All should stay together on this section of the trail. The red gear is to light up on the on the way up the Alba pass. Now we’re live. Just checking the tracking. These are not the only teams in the lead. We just picked the top five teams to show exactly where they are on the pass as they hit the Burgund camping section. That’s the time check at 47 km. and we will get an update on the timing at that point. But in the meantime, we’ll be relying on ebikes to cover and track the riders as they head towards that uh 47 km mark. We’re currently at the 38 km mark and to that service station, the second service station of the day, there is a steep climb, perhaps one of the steepest of the stage today. And this should see the race stretch out a little bit for the final main ascent up our pass. This is where the action could happen on these rocky trails, these tricky technical trails. Technical climbing is almost as difficult as the technical descending where riders have to keep their balance and also keep traction. Seated climbing is what it’s all about. In fact, climbing is what it’s all about at the Spars Epic. But seated climbing requires a certain technique where the rear wheel maintains traction, especially on the loose surfaces that you can see on the left hand screen. On the right hand screen, we have the women in a fast section of the trail as they head towards the next time check. Now the women have already passed through the 24 km mark and just looking down that list the team efficient infiniti SCB Stram and Alexis SCA are flying today. They are hungry for victory. Alexis Gardo is a rookie at the race. Verza having won. She will know exactly how to guide her American compatriate through and they’ve already put one minute into Topala Kendra FSA and Buff Mega Rosa Dawn Rosa Van Dawn and Janita Vist over a minute and a half back at that service station at the 24 km mark. So all to play for in the women’s category. We’re expected to see big things from Vera Loza and Lexus Scarda. Scattera is a well-known exponent of the gravel discipline and uh you could hardly say she’s dabbling in mountain bike stage racing because it does actually form part of uh of her season, a major part of her season. Lexus Garter is coming good on the alpine challenge with the pass laws of the Namibian multiple Namibian champion in almost every discipline in New Cycling and she’s also holds the epic legend title having completed the Absip Epic and two of the other epic legend races. Just a glimpse there of the gaps in the women’s field with the Infiniti SCB Stram out front 1 minute and 10 seconds ahead of Sna and Mare. be reaching that next time. And uh the Canondale ISB Sport are the defending champions had such a dominant performance last year, winning every stage. Monica Calderron, the 38-year-old Colombia, riding the test from Holland. She’s uh also a dual she has dual citizenship Spanish national champion and also having a great performance this year. They won together. They won the four island. You can see there Vera Loza just taking the lead out there. She’s in the the African Championships jersey. And very soon we’ll be hearing from Dario Linder down with the riders. He’s out in the field at the moment and we’ll be looking forward to hearing his commentary as to what’s happening out there on the course. Lexus Scarda following her Namibian teammate also a wellproven partnership. Scattera is in fact a well-known gravel expended. We said earlier she’s uh had some great results on the gravel circuit. She’s been top five last year in the overall rankings of the lifetime Grand Prix circuit which also includes mountain bike the marathon discipline and uh she’s new to the spar Swiss epic and she’s got a good guide the former winner of the race in Vera Loausa veroa is practically Swiss she’s married to a Swiss national Connie Loza also himself an accomplished mountain biker both at the spar Swiss epic and also at the abs epic we’ve seen some great performances from especially in his debut year the uh when he rode with the 20 2016 winner Verse Huber Law’s victory at the Spar Swiss Epic was when she was partnered with Kim Lort who subsequently has moved on the road and in fact was wearing the yellow jersey at the Tour of France FAM at Zift this year and exciting race. Exciting to see the African riders doing well out on the international circuit. Alexis Carter takes the lead. They look evenly matched as they share turns driving that gap even bigger. From the map you’ll just get an idea of more or less where they are and in the out on the course 43 km to go and Canidel ISP sport top kender FSA and the Bulls the Swiss team are having a good day out today. Just gives us an idea of how much time efficient Infiniti SCB Stram have put into their rivals. And they know that if they can make this count, if they can get to that that tricky steep technical climb and put an good advantage into their rivals, they know that they’ll have a head start on the main climb, the Albula pass. And that means that when they start descending, they can they can afford to ride a little bit more conservatively knowing that the other riders will be on the back foot. The other riders will push just a little bit harder to try and catch up, which puts them into a difficult position with their rivals having to take extra risks to catch back up to Scarda and Loza. Some spectacular aerial footage that we’re getting of the race, the women’s category. Just having a look at that time check. It seems that Loza and Scott are putting minutes into their nearest rivals and Rosa Van Dorn and Univ one of the favorites coming into the race are riding with the are not alone. They have some company but looking down that list alarmingly Calderon and Corticass are not having a good day. We’ll hear soon when the riders finish exactly what is happening down on the trails and what has befallen the Colombian and the Dutch national rider. It could be a mechanical. It could just be that X factor that comes into professional racing is form. Never quite sure how you’d cope with the altitude. Although Monica Caldron is Colombian, she her hometown is at altitude and she should be well accustomed to it. But with their rigorous travel schedule and uh very difficult calendar, the Spar West Epic happens is more or less at the end of the season or towards the end of the season and it all depends on how that season has gone for the riders. So it’s hard to predict exactly how they’ll all perform, but we did expect to see Calderon and Corticos at the very front of the field and not four minutes down on Vera Loausa and Alexis Garder. All credit to the American and to the Namibian putting down the pressure where it really counts and an unexpected move from them so early in the race. We expect Loza, well-known marath also a longhand format racer to come good in race week towards the end. But it looks like they’re putting in their moves really early on. teams riding together hoping to minimize the damage to the Namibian and the uh and the American Lexus Scarda and Vera Loza. We’re on stage one at the 2025 edition and the 25 2025 edition started in Devos and uh we head to Laun’s Bike Kingdom. We’re going to be heading up some of the most well-known high mountain passes in the region. Some special addition to the race. Stage three throws in a high altitude twist team time trial at the Bonina Pass. And then we head back to Dvos for a traditional hero’s welcome. And the final stage, the grand finale stage is a loop course. And riders will be finishing that day. And they’ll be coming, for the riders who’ve ridden an epic series race before, they will understand they will be receiving hero’s welcome. Alexis Scarter taking the lead, putting down the pressure with Vera Loza in her African Champs jersey. Alexis Scarter also having been worn the Stars and Stripes jersey denoting her national championship title and they are trading turns. Great to see such an evenly matched team. That’s what it’s all about. Team dynamics are a major part of racing at uh the Epic Series. stage racing, unbike stage racing is characterized by two person teams. And this is a major factor when it comes to performing is how well the two riders, not only how well they’re matched, but also how well they communicate. And an established partnership like this, they are clearly communicating very well. Hardly having to speak to each other. almost telepathic level of understanding and communication between them as they forge their advantage over their rivals. looking very smooth out there on the course and we’re going to be treated to some useful graphics as to how they’ve how they’ve fared throughout the course. They are doing extremely well. They’re putting their advantage down on all but the steepest descents clearly in the lead. They are taking no risks on the downhills and with the Ishel trail. It’s a technical trail. They will have just maybe lost 4 seconds or so, but nothing compared to the time that they’re gaining on the flats on and on the uphills. Can’t wait to see how they perform from the section that is marked lassorts. That is most likely the steepest climb in the stage before they mount their challenge on the Alba pass. Verza leading the way, the 31-year-old multiple Namibian champion. And it’s her sixth time at the Spy Swiss Epic. She was the uh she’s won the Cape Epic. She’s won the 2023 Swiss Epic. and she was second at the Absa Cape Epic in 2025, second at the 2025 and Pandora Epic, and second at the 2025 Four Islands Epic. And it doesn’t look like she’s going to be happy with second place here today at the Spar Epic, the first stage, stage one of the 2025 edition, as we are back with the men and we’re heading through the field to see how much damage this climb has done on the on the main field. We’re right now with the bikes team. He’s the defending champions with number one John Schmidt behind Lucas Fliger as they mount their challenge on this climb. Well, it’s a good sign for Schmidt and Flickiger. They look like they were absolutely on form. Fluking did come into the race saying that he was a little bit concerned about his preparation. Not quite the uh leadup that he had wanted, but uh that might be a bit of fighting talk. The Swiss rider Well, we’d like to hear from Stephan exactly what’s going out on the field. And Stefan, hopefully he can hear me, introduce him as the Bulls Media ebike rider and the most knowledgeable commentator out on the course because he’s right there with the riders. Stefan, are you able to hear me? Well, well, still we are still struggling a little bit with the audio. Of course, we are in some of the most remote parts of the Grab Bundon region on those high mountain passes that we’ve been speaking about all morning. But he will be racing up ahead just to see how much damage this climb is doing. They’re already on the main climb of the day, the Albula pass. And it looks like some major action is happening out in the men’s field. Just going to have a quick look to see if we can catch any information out on the time checks. This is Martin Stozk out on the course right now. Neil, if you can hear me, I can give some insights now. Behind Martin Stok, V. Solomon is waiting for him. Now we just heard a just a little bit of audio from Stefan S who is with Martin Stozek right now in the Czech National Championships jersey and Alaman is out front. We might just have caught a glimpse of him as he rounded that corner out just a little bit ahead of uh of Martin Stozk. The riders of course being a twoperson team they are obliged by the rules to stay within two minutes of each other but there’s no danger of that. You can see Vart Alaman up ahead just a couple of seconds out just in front and the Belgian champion leading this pairing and going into the race as the favorites and they are living up to living up to the promise and how we touted this uh Buff Mega Mo team as they mount their campaign on the 2025 edition. I was just having a look at the aerial view. This is a tracking. This is from our tracking files and just to show exactly where they are in the race. Be reaching the Bergen camping spot in just a moment. We were able to get a time check and to see how bikes performance who looked like they were in touch in the early part of the stage but seem to have lost some time. We’ll get some confirmation out on the course exactly what happened. They looked on good form, but the bikes performance team are around about look like they’re about 20 seconds behind this pairing of Alaman and Stozek as Stefan S follows. Martin Stozek up the trails and they are racing. It’s white hot racing at the moment. Stose is not making sure that he keeps the pressure down to stay in touch with Vad Alaman who is also driving the pace hard. Buff Mega Mo are on a great day out. I was still looking to get a sight of exactly where the buff meat team are out on this But we do know that as soon as they hit that Bergen camping checkpoint, we’ll know exactly how far ahead they are. We saw B. There’s Bart Alaman just out front there driving the pace and B element on good form having had a good season. He was uh fourth at the four islands with Huntsbing disappointing abs epic and looking to make good on that a winner of the Andor epic but he’s yet to add a sparse epic win to his collection of wins. He was second at 2023 and just looking to do one better than that and to take victory and a great day out for this pairing so far. Martin Stozik, the 31year-old and he has won the SPA Spar Swiss Epic before in 2023 when riding with Mark Stutzman. He was third in 2020 when he was riding with the Cape Epic winner, the Abso Cape Epic winner, Christian Heinik. Martin Stozik was last year’s European gravel champion and this year’s national champion in the marathon discipline. Well, with 31 km to go and it’s still rather large mountain pass still to scale. The looks like it’s all falling in the favor of the buff Mega Mo team. Pre-ra these were the favorites coming into the race. Even though the defending champions were Fluker and Schmidt, this is the all the firepower and all the motivation, especially with Vaman still wanting to add that spar specific title to his list of impressive Palares. Right. Well, this is the moment of truth that we’re all waiting for. exactly what’s happening out on the course and we get exactly the situation right now in the very descriptive pros of the result sheet at the 47 km mark. The Samperezi brothers are having a storming day and Alaman and Stozix who were with earlier who we previously thought were out front were 25 seconds back and still all to playful for the uh for the riders here. Samperezes have a fantastic record at the Spice Raceway Epic. It is only one record when they arrived last year. surprise winners of stage one. Lorenzo and his brother having an great day out, looking to make good on their disappointment, losing their jerseys throughout in the latter half of the week. And Lilo and Kun also on a good day out, but they are over a minute back. We would expect the firepower of uh of the team of Buff Meamo to get back on get back on sorts with the Samperezi brothers group. We’re just going to be uh just going down the list of uh riders who are passing through that uh time split number five at the 47 km mark the service station to Bergen Camping and out in the lead. Let’s do a roll call. The Sampereezy brothers riding with Topardo Kender FSA Fabian Ravensteiner and Casey South the Metallergica Veneta MTB Pro team Tafferell and Ares doing having a great day out. Another surprise that they’re out out front, but that’s what this race is all about. It’s all about the favorites and the dark horses that we didn’t spot initially. That’s what makes it so exciting. Cleatizer Orbia, another of the favorites, Schutzman and Porro out in that group, a group of four with Scott racing. Credi and Goria in hot pursuit with their second team, their backup team, Andrea Bey, and David Fakoli. Buff Mega Mo in hot pursuits as well. 25 seconds down. They’ll hope to shut down that gap as soon as possible to get back on turns and get back into that group. Group of seven teams really in contention for the stage win as we head up the Albula pass. Well, let’s do a quick roll call in that group there to see the lead group out on the course, the Samperezi brothers. And we did spot Mark Schutzman and Samuel Porro. And of course, Casey South is instantly recognizable in his Swiss Championships jersey in the red. Just fourth rider out on the course that you see in front of you. That’s Casey South. his teammate Fabian Rabenstein, a experienced campaigner in mountain bike stage racing, having won several stages of the Absa Cape Epic and also a two-time winner of the Spar Swiss Epic. Could he make it three and match the record of uh the legendary Lucas Flukiger? Fluker into his 20th year as an elite cyclist, as a professional rider riding for bikes performance. This is in fact his own team outfit. So he’s a team manager and a rider and out there on the field riding with the very best. Impressive performance. But the current leaders, the Sanarees and Raymond Steiner and South and Teel and Arias. We didn’t see Schutzman and Porro in this group. We’re looking to see if Stefan can add some insight as to where Porro and Schutzman are and just how far Martin Stozic and Valt Alamman are behind. But it looks like the Sanarees are keen on uh taking this to the line there. The Cleatiza Oria team are playing a bit of a back seat this just enjoying the pace being set. We’ll no doubt see them accelerate or it’ll all play out at least on the Alba pass. It’s hard to tell exactly who is on form and we can see uh the Scott Racing team keen to get back on terms. They were 11 seconds back at that time check both the Scott Racing one and two teams. Great outfit here. Andrean Beley well-known exponent of this race riding with his partner David Fakoli and Sephra and Goria an all Italian outfit except for Andrean Beley the Swiss rider. In fact, we have the Italian champion out front leading the pace looking at the front at the team in front of them looking to get back on terms with them. It’s all about being able to see the riders in front. It’s a bit like the uh the the hair out front always makes it just a little bit easier when there is something where something to aim for, something to catch. Now behind this team will be Vout Alamman and Martin Stozk. Martin Stozk looked to be struggling from the reports we’ve just heard out on the course from Stefan S that Vout Alaman had to wait for his Czech partner. Let’s hope that uh they will come good through the week because they are going into the race the favorites and we all know the firepower that Valaman has and the capabilities of Martin Stozek. On the right hand screen we can see the women and with the leaders out on the course today there Vera Loza and Alexis Scarda. Fantastic ride from this pairing today. almost three minutes again over that time at that time check last time we checked. So keeping an eye on the next time check to see how they’ve progressed. The men are on the smooth section of the climb. This is characterized by the race. Sometimes the uh there’s a bit of respite from the rough surfaces they’ve been experiencing. Certainly on that rough steep climb that we saw earlier. They will just enjoy getting into a rhythm. And let’s be honest, it’s a very high rhythm that they’ll be setting on this climb as they head up the Albula pass and looking to gain as much advantage as they can, putting as much of their power down as possible to gain as much advantage. So when they reach the top that gap will be playing in their favor because of course the riders trying to catch trying to close that gap will have to take extra risks on the way down. And extra risks mean the possibility of having a mechanical crash and of course the time loss then with a puncture or a crash could be infinite. We’ve seen riders in the past lose their races just uh from a simple tire cut and that comes from just pushing a little bit too hard on some of the rockier sections of the descents. And that’s why a good performance on the climb is just so important. No matter where they are out in the course, even if it is in the very beginning of the course, it’s important to put down as much pressure as they can on the climb to gain as much advantage to put the other riders on the back foot. The Clemeta or beer team happy to follow, happy to follow the fierce pace set by the Sanarees as they head up the climb. getting some encouragement from the media team. When they reach the top, they’ll be able to see the panoramic views from the Alba pass and the reward will not only be from the panoramic views, but also the descent. Even the top professionals racing at this level, they still enjoy the views and still enjoy the flow trails and the technical trails too on the Spar Swiss Epic. We’re out on the smooth roads, perhaps a little bit closer to civilization that we have been uh in this stage. And we hope to hear from Stefan out on the Bulls Media ebike. He’s seen it all. He’s seen exactly how the actions unfold. Let’s get uh let’s hopefully we’ll hear something from him. Hey, Neil. Hope you can hear me now. I was a bit in a dead spot earlier on. There’s lots of drama happening right now. Well, since the beginning, actually. While Alaman had a had an issue uh and was far back in the bunch, had to catch up. And now it looks like Martin Stok is is a little struggling. But here in the in the front group with the three teams, they’re working nicely together. Everybody is happy with the pace. But the real real damage was was made at the technical uphill, the first part of the Albula Albula pass. Also, Lucas and John a little bit struggling, but I assume they will come back on the downhill into La Brun. Well, it’s great to hear from Stefan telling us exactly what’s gone on on the course. And being a racer himself, a three-time winner of the Absuk Epic, he knows exactly how the tactics unfold and all the tricks in the game. And he will know also how to read the race and how to even predict it. So by the time he gets back down on the into La Point, we’ll be cross questioning him and asking him exactly how it all went down for our postra analysis. Having a look at where they are out on the course. They’ve passed the Bergen camping time check at the 47 km mark and very soon we’ll be reaching the 54 km mark of Prada. And then we’ll have another idea. We saw them out on the trail, the three teams together, Ravenstein in the south, Stutzman and Porro, Samperezi brothers, uh, with the Tafferel, Aras, Sephi, and Goria, the Scott team a little bit behind, 20 seconds behind, putting down a solid effort with the Italian national champion leading the way. Agonizingly close for the Chasers looking to get in touch with the lead group. Best chance they have at victory with three spots on the podium today and the best chance at the yellow jerseys. Of course, the winners of today’s stage is the first stage. The winners of today’s stage will pull on that prestigious leaders yellow jersey by the time they uh get back into or head into La Point. We’ve got a very fast finish. We expect to see fireworks with the Sanarei brothers having proven that they are wellversed at a chaotic sprint. So we expect to see big things from the Italians once again. Sure. With the rough trails that the riders will be experiencing all week, little bit of respite on the tar section. But uh when we say respite, that’s just the surfaces. That’s not counting the maximum effort that the riders are putting in. We just see some splits in that chase group happening because they are putting down maximum power. But also, it is an art to be able to pace yourself as a rider because of course if you reach the top uh having put out as maximum effort, it’s a really hard thing to get back uh to come back out of the red zone and to recover. That’s what the downhill is for. The downhill is for recovery, but of course, if the riders go too deep into the red, they might compromise their ability to focus on that downhill. And that’s what it’s all about. It’s all about focusing and all about staying alert and avoiding any possible mishap. And if any riders are on the back foot and have lost time on the climb, they will just have to take a few extra risks. We’ve talked about it a lot. It is a major part of mountain bike stage racing is balancing risk and are back with the lead group. Cleat teaser all beer the team of Ravensteiner and South having a great day out. Stutzman and Porro in the lead right now. So the graphics are a telling story with how well Schutzman and Pora are handling the climbs. Not taking too many risks on the downhill, but uh on the flatter sections and on the uphills, they are gaining a huge advantage. And that technical climb that we’ve been speaking about earlier, the steep technical ascent with the rocks, the narrow trails, losing 1 minute and 36. We’re not quite sure exactly what happened to Schmid and Flukiger. We’ll find out when they reach the line. Dar will be asking them some searching questions from the defending champions and the three-time winner, in fact, of the Sparos epic, Lucas Liga. graphic gives us an understanding of exactly how the riders are fairing on each section of the course. You can see Casey South in his Swiss National Championships jersey riding with experienced partner Fabian Ravensteiner. Well, they’ve hardly left the front. The Samperezi brothers, the 33-year-old Nicholas Samperezi and his brother Lorenzo, both his younger brother, uh, Lorenzo, two years younger in fact. And Nicholas Serezi, the taller rider, has been setting the pace. Some impressive Palaras from the Italian. He was second in in the Italian national championships in 2022 and second at the Spice Swiss Epic in fact in 2024 riding with his brother and his brother also often on the podium of World Cup races in marathon single day races and himself was second at the Italian National Championships in 2011. Well, the enthusiasm from the all Italian team is clear at the moment. They know that they’ve put a gap into their main favorites of the race, Alaman and Stose. They know that this is when it really counts and it’s all about making hay when the sun shines. They need to be sure that when they have an advantage, they need to maximize it as much as they possibly can. And can’t put too fine a point on it. When you have the opportunity in mountain bike stage racing, you take it. You drive home as much advantage as you can because the next day, you never know what might happen. Might be an incident, might be uh might be a mechanical. It’s all to play for right now out on the course. Well, no change so far in the last few minutes in the men’s category as they are on the pass. It’s a ball about putting in a rhythm and uh setting a fierce pace and gaining as much advantage as they can. Three teams in the lead and included in that lead group of three teams Cleatiza Oria and Mark Stutzman and Samuel Porro is an experienced campaign a fivetime national champion champion of Italy. He was third at the Absuk epic in 2019 and he won a stage in 2016. So he goes way back in his 10th year of racing at the very highest level the epic series and in fact one of the years of the abs epic he raced with none other than Vincenza riding him through the uh most competitive mountain bike stage race in the world in the Western Cape and he’s only 37 years old. new team for him. The fivetime Italian champion and looks like he has a new lease on life riding with Mark Stutzman, the Swiss national. Stutzman, 33 years old, having won the Spar Swiss Epic with Martin Stozk and we are with the women’s category now. the leaders of the women’s category out on the field today out on the course the stage one from Devast with Alexis Scarda who is right in front of us and she’s being led up the steep technical section of this trail by Vera Loza the continental champion of Marathon Alexis Garter just putting in maximum effort just to get over that little rise incredible trails here in Press Epic and we’re hoping to hear from Daria who is actually out on the Alba pass. We’re keen to see what the weather’s like and uh just to get a gauge of uh if you can see the riders coming up the climb. Dario, can you hear us? Yeah. This way. Good. I’m here everywhere. Hey, I This is the ibex. This is the highest point here at the Alba bus. Look, these are the bottles of the top UCI riders. So, top man Lucas Vicker from last year here with his bottle. They can grab the bottle and then enjoy this beautiful Albula trail down here. But, uh, look at the rest of it. What a setup are we having up here at the Albula Plaza? Our partner’s bar. Yeah. With everything, chocolate, sausages, sweeties, salty stuff, and everywhere. And even our partner is here. If you have something to fix on your bike, everything is ready. Everything is ready up here at the Alwala Pass. Yeah. And look this beautiful view. This beautiful trail down here. Freshly refueled. Let’s go for it. Well, it was great to hear from Daria out on the climb at the highest point in the race today in the stage at the Albula Pass and uh he was uh standing at exactly 2,300 mters. So, he’ll be uh reporting high up the top there before he comes down to join us on the line to interview the riders and to hear exactly how it went out on the course. And we’re watching the UCI women at the 47 km mark as they head into that time check. We’ll be able to get a time check on how just how well Vera Loza and Lexus Scala have been progressing. We saw earlier that they’ve put over two over 3 minutes into their arrivals at an early part of the stage already on the technical tricky technical sense. Lexus Garter, the American rider, paired up especially for the race and in fact is an often often a partner of Vera Loausa pair up. They do ride for different trade teams, different sponsors, but they pair up especially for the race. Verza riding in a continental champs jersey and Nexus Gard former national champion the marathon discipline and at the 35 km mark their advantage over to Kenda FSA. That’s SNA and Mar was over 3 minutes 3 minutes and 44 seconds. Buff Mega Mo riding with Topa Kenda FSA team together. Rosa Van Dorn and Uni Boost have paired up with the Topa Kenda in pursuit of the uh American Nerbian and the Bulls Swiss team. also on a good day out riding together with Monica Calderon defending champions Calderon and Tessa Quarticcast Canidel ISB Sport 4 minutes back off the lead at the 35 km mark doesn’t look good for the Colombian and the Dutch rider if they want to defend that title 4 minutes is a lot of time to make up even there are four days to go after this stage but we can hear we can see you can sense the hunger of Vera Loza and Alexis Scarda as they keep pushing harder and harder just before they reach the bottom of Bass. And this is what all the riders from the front to the back of the field can expect service at the Proam mountain bike race at the epic series as they expect the star treatment from the spar and then enter stall and also from the sponsors of the race. They get full access to nutrition and technical support and setting them on their way refueling and making sure that their machines are running smoothly. Just having a look at the women’s section just seeing where they are out on the trails. Efficient Infiniti SCB Stram are on a storming day. passing the Bergen camping section and they will have passed that time check already with the Canada ISB Sport to Kender FSA Buff Mega Mo Bull Swiss all more or less together within 15 seconds of each other but way up the road almost 4 minutes ahead efficient infinity SCM the partnership of Vera Loza and and Lexus SCA are really having an incredible Today bure laws are looking to repeat her victory. She has been here six times with only one victory and that ratio will increase hopefully if she can continue in this vein putting over 4 minutes into her rivals at this early stage on stage one. Now we have just seen that the at the service station 2 that’s the Bergen camping the 47 km mark efficient infinity scram have passed through there 2 hours and 25 minutes and 28 seconds of racing and as yet we have not seen the second place team out on the on the trails today. Haven’t seen them pass that time check. Topata Kender FSA we’re looking for. Buff Mega Mo we’re looking for and the Bulls Swiss team riding together with the Canada ISB Sport. No sign of them yet at that 47 km mark. Back with them in we’re with Clementa Oria. We’re taking a back seat on this climb. Happy to let the Serezi brothers set the pace. S Breezy brothers looking to gain revenge not only on their their their winners of the 2024 edition but also on their biggest rivals and that would take the form of Buff Megumo. They know they put some time into Buff Mega. They won’t know exactly how much. They don’t have information out on the course. Certainly not the information that we do, but they’ll know that any gap is worth preserving. keeping that power down, keeping the pressure down, knowing that any advantage they can gain, they’re going to put it going to put them to the sword. Casey South also happy in his uh national championship jersey to follow the lead of the Samperezi brothers. Samperezy’s swapping turns out front looking to gain more of an advantage. Not able to quite drop the likes of uh Well, this is a bad sign for the Samperezi brothers with the kind of the Serezi brothers just struggling a little bit on this climb perhaps putting a bit too much effort in earlier on and it’s a bad sign for uh for the campaign for these two. We just saw a little bit of a move by the Cleatiza team, the Clementa Oria team, Strutsman and Porro putting down the pace. Perhaps just a little bit too much effort earlier on. Samperezi brothers struggling. Nicholas Samperezi, the older of the two, the 33y old riding in the number three-1. Lorenzo, his brother, number two, looking out on the just to see exactly where they are out on the trails. Very soon they’ll be reaching that Albula pass at the 60 km mark. Soon as they turn that so-called corner, they might be able to start catching a glimpse of where they’re headed to the top, the highest point in the stage. This very long climb there. Looked like they’re on about 3/4 of the way up. uh getting to the 60 km mark with only 18 km to go. Once they crest that uh when they when they breach that pass, they’ll have a long downhill and a just reward after the efforts they’ve spent on this incredibly challenging mountain pass. one that characterizes the race. When we spoke to one of the locals and we said they’re riding many of the passes of this uh of this beautiful region and the answer was yes, we’re riding all of them. So all of the major passes we’re covering throughout this week in the 5-day stage race and no doubt that’s where all of the action is going to happen. This is traditionally where the action happens in mountain bike stage racing where it can get really selective. It’s possible that uh San Breezy brothers are just having a slightly bad moment, but we’ll keep our eyes on them. We’re back with the men’s category. 21 km to go, getting closer and closer to the top of that pass. And this is when it really counts is the closer they are, more in touch that the teams are. We just see the Scott Racing team, that’s team one and two, and the national Italian national champion has hardly left the front. Fantastic performance from these two out on the Well, we are well and truly on the Alba pass almost 3/4 of the way up and uh we’re going to be crossing to Dario who’s at the top right now. We just heard from him earlier when he was showing us the service station that the riders will be reaching where they’ll be able to refuel and we hope to hear from him in just a moment. We’re on 2,350 m above sea level. So, the highest point of today’s stage is the Albula Pass. It’s a bit windy up here. It’s fresh. Riders are coming up this small trail and then enter into the Albula trail. So, the Alba Pass, a very famous spot for all the cycles. It’s busy up here. Everybody’s waiting for the top riders at the top of today’s stage. And right now we’re just getting an idea of where the uh women’s category are at the moment out on the trails. They’ve passed through the 47 km mark and we’ll be soon just getting a bit of a time split on them. But uh before we receive that information, we will be uh just introducing you to uh our Roman commentator today uh that’s Roman Dobler and he has with them special guest. So we’re looking forward to hearing from the romantic commentator Roman. Over to you. Thank you Neil for introduction. The dots organiza Soch. for me. President Fore marathon central. mountain bikes. for the most. for mountain bike. Sports for example. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. for near for EPS. President President Fore event participation. forchech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. fans, fanatic sports in general. Okay, finch. That’s super focus. Foreance mind. Fore nails grandchune. She’s for Relative Finland. set Japan. It is criminal. Fore for example. Fore speech. Fore passing around. is a vine. For example, foreign. Okay, good. for for Capricorns. for relative docket. Capricorn extreme. foreign. Hi Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. for events project. vischech. Nidish hand over to you back into the race. This was Nidker for many years. He was the chanc we say in Roman the guy who has all in the hands about Laund. Well, thank you very much and Roman. It was a great to have you here with us and uh we wave goodbye to you, but we also say hello to some of the riders approaching the top of the Albula pass. We’ve said we’ve seen the top professionals heading through and now the top 20 teams including Marcelo. So just seen him and Pernstein have passed through there. And uh unfortunately for Lucas Fluking, we’ve just seen team bikes and they’ve just passed through over 13 minutes down. Unfortunate for the pairing for the defending champions. 13 minutes is a big ask to make up. It looks like they’ve had something go wrong in today’s stage. They were out front in the very beginning and we’ll no doubt hear from Dario on the line. um who will be interviewing them. But uh it looks like the dreams of Fluker and Schmidt a repeat are over having lost over 13 minutes at the time check. And just looking back at the women’s category at the 47 km mark, the Bergen camping efficient infinity SCB Stram had almost five minutes over their nearest rivals. Buff Meamo who riding closely with the Bulls Swiss team with Topado, Kender, FSA also in close attendance losing further time the race favorites and uh could say well the defending champions Canondell ISB Sport Ceron and Kesa Cortto almost 7 minutes back but we are with Vera Loza and Lexus Scarda. We saw Veriloa just giving Alexis Scarda just a little bit of an extra push to keep the pace high, just to keep the momentum. It’s all about sharing the effort, sharing of sharing the load. And it takes quite a lot of energy for a rider to push another one. But uh important if the one rider is feeling stronger, the all important thing is of course to keep the pace high and the pairing of Loza and Lexus Scarda has proved to be extremely successful one. Almost 5 minutes gained at the 47 km mark. If we extrapolate that over the week, over the five days, the five stages at the Spar Swiss Epic, that would count for quite a number of minutes. But of course, everyone knows who’s been following mountain bike stage racing that anything could happen over these five days. And knowing that most of all will be Lzo and Scarda because they will be putting as much advantage as they can. They’ll be making hay while the sun shines out on the course today. There’s quick confirmation on where Calderon and Quartic defending champions just like in the men almost 7 minutes down and that bodess badly for the Colombian and the Dutchman as they expected big things from themselves and uh also the fans of the race expected big things of these two but not to be. So, both the men and the women defending champions of the sparse recipic have lost several minutes so far midway through the stage and that means that uh we are looking to be treated to a new leaders jersey wearer out on the trails today in La Point. Those jerseys will be passed on to new shoulders both in the men’s and the women’s category. Quick eye on where the women are. 24 km to go. Finish Infinity Insure way out front as the rest of the field pass through the the Pa section. 53 km mark. Now back with the V laws and Alexis Scarda. Ver Laws are letting Alexis Scarda set her own pace, not wanting to put too much pressure on. They know they can put down the power just when it counts. And as you can see from the graphic, the green areas is where they’ve gained time on all of their rivals. And it’s just all adding up. Losing a negligible amount of time on one of the technical trails, but gaining minutes at a time on each each designated section just seems to be adding up as they head up towards the Alba pass. They’ve already passed through the 47 km mark. Waiting to hear at the next time check just to see how much more they time they put into their rivals. But at the rate they’re going, they could be well close to up to almost 10 minutes over their nearest rivals. A dominant performance by these uh by this pairing. Today is the longest stage of the race. 78 km, 2,400 m of climbing. A little bit less descending. So, the net gain is uh was in fact a net loss. They will be climbing more than they’ve been descending. But, uh that won’t worry this pairing of Alza and Alexis Scarda. And they’ll be looking forward to the rest of the week. 307 km route and 9,500 meters of demanding ascent. We start in divorce this morning. We’re heading to Leont and Enaden, the two host cities of this event. 5-day epic series legend category race explores the iconic mountain bike trails of Graind, which you can see around you. legendary mountain biking trails and uh riders are going to be pushing themselves way over the limit and certainly way out of their comfort zones to conquer the Alps from the front of the race. As you can see right here, the leaders right the way through to the back of the field. All can say that they’ve earned that finishes medal and all can say they’ve conquered the Alps by the end of the week in Davos. be heading on a loop course throughout the week back to Dvos where we will finish in the riders will enjoy the grand finale in a hero’s welcome. Watching the team dynamics going on there with the Vera Loza. It’s a twoerson team stage race and the riders are obliged by the rules to stay within 2 minutes of each other which makes sense. This is a well functioning team that they are supporting each other and riding symbiotically. in-laws are knowing exactly when Lexus Garter just needs a little bit of an extra boost. Laws the experienced campaigner. She’s ridden six spar Swiss epics, one one edition of them riding with Kim Lort who has now moved on to the road. We were saying earlier she wore the yellow jersey in the tour of France. She won the age bust on Lege and uh now a new and successful partnership seems to be developing here with Alexis Scardo. We’ll see the race evolve throughout the week. Already looks like they are stamping their authority. All week we can look forward to some of these uh incredible alpine views and the dizzying descents to some of the wild forests. They’ll be battling those peaks with riders by their side. Six over 600 riders registered for the race. 300 teams as from nations from all over the world congregate in Switzerland. All to take on the challenge of the mountains and uh with those challenges comes the rewards with the recognition and the welcome that Switzerland has to offer. Well, there it is once again at 47 km. Lozan Scada are 4 minutes and 52 seconds ahead of Van Duran and V Nan Amos. It’s the Bull Swiss team. Close attendance is the top Kinder FSA team way back. Calderon and Corticas. Well, Raven Steiner and South, Casey South, the Swiss champion, they were at the time check at 68 km marks, they were leading the race. They’ve gained a gap on the Samperezi brothers and on Stutzman and Porro, something happened. Didn’t quite catch the action, but something has happened to Stutzman and Porro. They’ve lost over a minute when they were riding together with Raensteiner and South. And it’s uh here on the line. And before we hear from Daria on the line and before we hear from Stefan, we should say that it looks like this pairing are flying. They’ve seized the advantage and they are full gas now and heading towards the reward which will be a yellow jersey. Let’s not speak too soon. Raven Steiner and Casey South, the well-known campaigners. See Casey South in the Swiss national jerseys and Raven Steiner no stranger to his national championships jersey. He’s been European champion, Italian champion and now looking to be the champion of this stage, stage one. They don’t have too much of an advantage over the Sanarees. They won’t have given up. And we hope to hear from Stefan in just a moment. He’s out on the course with the riders following on the Bulls Media ebike. Daniel, I’m back in the front room. Lots of drama has happened on the Alba pass, especially on the downhill. As we all saw, some Breezy brothers got dropped in. And uh on the on the downhill, it looks like Markman had a fall. He has blood on his elbow. But more importantly, Samuel broke his rear wheel. He flooded it. want to stop and and pluck the the the flat but then saw like his rim is completely damaged so they are trying to manage the chaos still a long way going to lun so this will be yeah they will lose a lot of time brothers in the in the second position now about a minute back I would say to our leading duel and they are flying our case is pushing the power in the front it’s Crazy Barbie undocking in the bike. We’re flying at 45 to 50 km an hour. The race is on. And the race certainly is on with the team of Topado, Kender, FSA, Ravensteiner, and South absolutely flying flat out in looking to take that leader jersey there first. The Samperezi brothers in hot pursuit, flying along 44 second back, but Spare a thought for Cleatiza Oria having broken a wheel. Report from Stefan out on the trail. He has the best view of all. saw at the time check that Pora and Schutzman that were a minute back riding with Scott racing Sredia and Goria but we’ll wait to hear at the next time check just how they’ve been able to manage that damage Katza Oria it’s Samuel Porro had to fix that rear wheel and hopefully they’ll be able to manage the chaos Stephan S talks about managing the chaos and he in fact was an expert they made a campaign out of it they were the masters half disaster in the fact that they could fix a puncture or mend a chain or replace a chain or whatever they needed to do, they could do it in seconds. And uh that’s what stage racing is all about. Accidents happen, mechanicals happen, disaster happens, and it’s all about how you manage it. And it’s up to Porro and his teammate Mark Stutzman to manage that broken wheel and to limit the damage because clearly they have the firepower to win the race and to be at the very front. Raven Steiner and Casey South out in front gaining second by second over the Sanarees and the Scott Racing team. We have a more recent time check there. The team of Taperel and Aras Sephari and Goria are riding together with Sapparez and they may well cooperate to try and limit the damage that Ravensteiner and South are causing. Katza was a favorite coming into the race and uh we are not being disappointed by the partnership of Topado Kender FSA Raven Steiner and Casey South with Buff Mega. We yet to see where Buff Mega are on the uh on the leaders boards on the time splits. We haven’t caught a glimpse of them yet, but no doubt as soon as they do, we’ll let you know just how Alaman and Martin Stozek are fairing. So far through the uh time check at 73 km mark. We are 4ks to go, but passing through the only four teams have passed through there. So we’re still waiting for the likes of Buff Megumo Cleatiza Oria but all eyes on Torpado Kender FSA Ravensteiner and Casey South trading time trading time at the front cooperating and making sure that they are evening their efforts out. They are maximizing and optimizing their speed. And very soon we can hear the buzz of excitement at the finish line. You can hear the lead bikes coming through which means that the riders are very close. Three km out to be exact as Raven Steiner takes the front and forges ahead pushing the pace as his partner Casey South heads towards the finish. Topa Kender FSA. Fantastic performance from the Italian and the Swiss person. Still no word on coming through that time check any of the other teams. It’s only the top four teams. The teams in pursuit. Metallergic Veneta MTB Pro. Scott Racing and KTM Spider powered by Brena Brakes. That’s the Sarasi brothers. 18 seconds between team number one and the kilometers are counting down for the leaders of the race. The leaders of stage one stage heading through from Davos through the Graundon region and ending in La Point where we are right now waiting on the finish line and we’ve just had word from Clementa Oria. It’s time check they are four minutes back. So they’ve lost four minutes to Topata Kender FSA. These seem to be the two teams that are competing at the moment. The two teams on equal firepower. They are in pursuit of the uh the three team the two teams the three teams that are cooperating together MTV Pro Scott Racing KT and Spider Kingizer Oria seems to be managing the damage of that broken rear wheels. these mountains really well. He’s got so much experience. And just looking here at Casey South in his national championships jersey, 27 years old, he is 1.9 m tall. Some stats. 70 kg is his race weight. He’s a Swiss champion. 2023 he was seventh at the Spars Epic. 2019 he was second. Looking to do one better. He was riding that year. 2019 with Noah Bluriger now riding with the experienced Fabian Ravenside. Perfect partner for anyone who wants to compete and to exceed to succeed at the mountain bike stage race. Fabian Raymondsteiner a twotime spa Swiss epic winner in 2022. Ravensteiner won with Daniel Gaymire his teammate and in 2019 with Michaela Kazak Grande a rival to Casey South when he was second that year. Cape Pepeic was a little bit disappointing for Fabian Ravensteiner, but was fifth at the Abs Cape Epic in 2024 and is fourth was his best. Won three stages of the uh of the pinnacle of the epic series, the absic, but it’s now been Rainstein. Rainstein is not thinking about any of that right now. He’s thinking of victory. We see three riders out on that straight there. One of the riders is the Bulls Media ebike of Stefan S who’s followed the front riders all the way through today’s stage. Can’t wait to catch up with him and to tell him or to understand from him exactly what happened out on the trails. But we can hear them right now. They take a left turn here. And very soon we’ll see them head into the finish. And the best way that any rider or any team wants to win is solo. They can celebrate with their arms in the air. They don’t have to scrap for a sprint finish. They will be at the finish in just a moment as they head into the final straight and head into the finish in La Point. They have Stefan S in close tend as they dip down onto the uh the finishing straight and they are able to hold their arms a loft and the winners of stage one and they will pull on the yellow jerseys. The leaders jerseys and celebration from Casey South as the two the Italian and the Swiss rider have won stage one. Our second team scenes of triumph from the spar race epic stage one in Leont and we wait to see who will round out that podium. There were three teams in contention for the two spots and those three teams one of them was the Samperezi brothers. They won stage one in 2024. Let’s see how they fare this year. Scott Racing, KTM Sparta, and Metallergic Vaneta MTB Pro. We’ll battle it out in just a few just a minute or so. They were a minute back at the time check, a minute 19 to be exact. We expect to see them any second now. And we can see the group there coming through. They might be jostling a little bit for position because they know that a spot on the podium at the Spar Swiss Epic is prestigious. Even if you’re not the winner, just those last two spots that round out the podium are as important for these three teams. The Italian and Colombian pairing of Nicola Tafferel and Diego Aras. The all Italian pairing from Scott Racing, Sephi and Goria and the Sampirzi brothers who put their name in lights in 2024 taking the leader jerseys are pulling into the finish now. A tight corner before the finish. They know exactly what they have to do. Positioning is everything at this point. And on the back foot of Scott racing in just a moment we’ll know exactly just as they dip down onto the straight and just a few meters to go and the sprint finish. The time is taken when the second rider passes through and it looks like it’s Scott racing third and the Sanarezi brothers second on the stage. second across the line. There we go. Confirmation of that. The Sanarei brothers taking second. Perhaps a little bit disappointed that they didn’t manage to repeat their stage one victory and also having lost two minutes to the storming pairing of Ravensteiner and South. Sephr and Goria will be happy with a podium spot. They name in lights a surprise addition to this year’s podium on stage one, but no doubt we’ll be seeing more of them throughout the week. Clearly on form, as is Tafferel and Arias, right on the money when it comes to the firepower that’s required to lead this race. We’re looking back at Mark Stutzman and Samuel Pora. We’ll be seeing glimpses of them in the in a moment. They’ve been managing the damage. a broken rear wheel, a puncture and Porro and Strutzman from Kleatizer. Or will be looking to minimize the damage to fight another day because they know just as well that Ravenstein and Casey South could also have a bad day at mechanical and they need to be right in touch. So limiting the damage, making sure their race isn’t over. Mark Stutzman, Samuel Porro will be heading to the finish very soon. Hopefully the team of Clementa Oria will have been able to manage that because Scott racing to be and Fauli will be breathing down their necks and we’ll catch a glimpse of the riders coming through there now. It’s all about time now. Those spaces on the podium have already been taken up. They’ve been occupied by the uh team of uh Scott Racing and KTM Sparta. Now it’s all about minimizing the damage and minimizing the time loss to Topard Kender, the new leaders of the race. the yellow jersey wearers Raven Steiner and Casey Southroach here. Put your hands together. Let’s be loud and proud as we get ready to welcome them across the line. We’ve seen some fantastic performances, some pri surprise performances from the likes of Bergen Kft, the all German outfit. Um, Sza and Steinhart also having a great day out. But the cowbells are ringing as we see the Scott racing team, the second Scott racing team, Bey and Fauli pass through the time check. And we’re seeing that that was a 30 minutes. So that means that Cleatiza Orbia have lost over 5 minutes to their rivals to part Kinda FSA and passing through the finish line. The team of Bergen we mentioned them earlier just over 5 minutes 5 minutes and 19 seconds off the pace in Canondell ISB Sport. Also at the last time check we noticed they were around about the same time back. The team of Karina and Diego Rosa having a great day out. Cleatizer Oria we are looking to see where they are at the moment. Next team across the line. We just saw the clean teas at Orbe two team. That’s Gish and Martinez passing through there. But still no sign of their first team Stutzman and Samo Porro. That’s an unusual scene. We would expect the chosen team of Stuttzman and Pora to be the favorite team and the backup team, the second cleat or beer team to perhaps donate a wheel when in need. But uh there may be some discussions out on the field where Stutzman and Pora may have instructed their teammates to go up ahead and save their own race. Well, disappointment from Clementa, Obia, Strutzman, and Porro. They passed through the finish line and uh they passed through the finish line 10th spot having lost just a shade under minutes. It’s not the end of not the end of their campaign for sure. They still have a very realistic shot at a podium overall on Sunday when they reach DVOS. But seven minutes is a lot of time to make up on as on form as Raven Steiner and Casey South. Quick update on our team infinity team. Just confirmation of those results. Alaman and Stose buffed mega by the favorites coming into the race. The firm favorites. We’ll hear from Dario who’s on the finish line. right now going to be talking to the winners of the stage and hopefully he’ll get a chance to catch up with the vout Alaman and Martin Stozek to see what went wrong on their campaign and also to see if Stutzman and Porro believe they can rescue their campaign. Looked like they were right on the money and on form at the very front of the race but with their disastrous rear wheel breakage they have lost just under seven minutes. We saw Ursa the 2016 winner of the absic and reil Cina is now new trusted teammate head through the finish 7 minutes and 3 seconds down. Leo and Karn looked good in the early part of the stage and we’ll also need to understand exactly what happened to them. They were right on the front almost the very front of affairs at every time check. They were the first on the list each time and keen to hear what would happen to them on the stage. Of course, as Stefan S said, it is chaos out there. Fierce racing of mountain bike stage racing, especially with the trails as wild as these ones. They did experience some technical trails. as they experienced some flow trails and of course that huge mountain pass the albula pass they had to climb up for float trails on the way down but so many things can go wrong just on one stage let alone the entire week and Leela and Kern had a good day out in the beginning 8 minutes and 30 seconds they will look to tomorrow with that form scenes from the finish. We see Casey South receiving congratulations on a fantastic performance and awaiting his turn to be interviewed in the winners lounge. Winners’s lounge is where the riders will clean up after remove some of the blood the blood and the mud splattered on them from uh from the trails from their efforts out on the 78 km course today. 2,400 m of climbing. They’ll get a chance to clean up and uh make themselves look good for the podium. It’s that the money shot as they call it where the podium will be taken up by Abin Ravensteiner and Casey South at the very top with fantastic performance again from the Samperezi brothers and Scott racing rounding out the podium on today’s stage. Soon we’ll be crossing down to Daria on the finish line for some interviews. Well, in fact, we’ve got Max Cleer out on the field uh doing the interviews with the riders and he’ll be getting some insights as to what happened out on the trail. We only saw so much from the air and from the Bulls media ebikes uh with the remote location and uh connectivity and so on. Although we had some great pictures, uh we get the best information from the riders at the end of the stage. Now those interviews will be with us in a short while. And uh just going down that list of uh winners of the uh stage victory of course went to Fabin Ravensteiner and Casey South and we’ll be hearing from them in just a moment. All right, here we go. Top Kenda FSA Fabian Renado Casey South. An incredible day for you. Just over two minutes ahead on the lead after the Queen stage. Fabian, you’ve won this race twice. What are the conditions like out there? Yeah, we are really happy with this win. Uh had a nice race. Uh always uh control. Uh we can uh stay always in the front group. So yeah, in the end uh we are really lucky with this 2 minutes gap because yeah, Cleadiza was also really strong. First uh Stoutzman had a little crash in the last downhill and afterwards his teammate Samuel I heard he had broke he broke uh his wheel. So yeah, we can uh create a little gap and yeah, we are happy. Casey, a good way to start for you obviously from Switzerland. You know the mountains well. How’s the partnership working out? It’s working out good. Um, Fabian is always a super calm rider. He he bikes me sometimes when when it’s needed to don’t go full gas, but uh we work we work well together, I think. Nice to get the first stage win, the queen stage under your belt and a Swiss win for you. Yes, exactly. And it was really nice because it was the first first time I was in the Swiss National Champion jersey uh the first race and then I could strike win it which was nice. Fabian, you’ve been in this space before. You’ve won it twice here. 2 minutes sounds like a lot, but it’s not a lot. Anything can happen. We’ve still got four days to race. What’s the plan going into tomorrow? Yeah, I like really this race. Uh I won it two times. Uh there are super nice trace always also in the upp. And yeah, 2 minutes uh seems a lot, but uh here can happen everything. Uh you have to be full concentrate all day and every day. Uh so yeah, we have to go day by day and then we will see. Congratulations. Good luck for tomorrow. Thank you. Well, some great insights from the riders out there battling it out. The winners of the day, Casey South, Fabian Ravensteiner. Raven Steiner cautious with his optimism throughout the week. He knows he’s on form. He’s got that confidence. It’s clear Casey South delighted he mentioned it himself that to win a stage in your home race in Switzerland wearing the Swiss National Championships jersey is indeed a great honor and he’ll remember this day forever in his career as a true highlight winning the first stage and also pulling on that leader jersey. Very soon we’ll be hearing from the Sanarei brothers. really hit the limelight last year at the Spa Swiss Epic 2024 and uh winning the first stage, putting themselves in yellow. It’ll be hearing just how it went out there on the course today. KTM Sparta powered by Brena Brakes. Lorenzo and Nicholas, a good day for you. A sprint finish. You’re just over two minutes off the lead. How are you guys feeling? Yes, today it’s a good day. Uh not the best day for me, but uh very support my teammate. It’s uh it’s a good day. Lorenzo, take us through that sprint finish. You guys managed to get ahead onto that track next to the finish line and then you jumped in and took the sprint. Yeah, in the in the last kilometer we stay in front and take in front the first the last corner and the sprint is uh good and finish second in them. How was the route today? The big climbs, the nice downhills. Did you enjoy it? Yes, it’s really happy stay here. Uh amazing track. Uh very long uh clim today but uh really nice track. Congratulations. We’ll see you tomorrow. Thank you. Good. Well done, guys. Good job. Now with the women, 17 km to go for this fantastic team out here on the day. Vera Loza and Alexis Garder. We’ll be hearing down on the ground from the uh from the riders from the third space third place riders today. And uh but before we do that, we’ve just got information out on the course at the Albula Pass, 60 km mark, 60.5 to be exact. Efficient Infinity SCB Stram passed through the time check after 3 hours and 26 minutes 39 seconds. And Buff, Mega Mo, Rosan Dawn are 3 minutes and 19 seconds back. They’ve had a great time racing and congratulations on a good day today across the line. A sprint finish. Yes, it was a chaotic first stage because the first part of the race it was really fast with a lot of single tracks and a lot of teams in the wanted to stay in the front. So, it was a bit hectic stage in the first part and then the last uh long and hard climb on the Albula pass. It was really hard. The first stage is always hard specifically if it is a queen stage. You did 2,400 m of climbing today. It gets a bit easier and a little bit shorter from here. You must be happy with your result today. Yes, we are really happy for the result. The result in the first stage. I was a bit on the limit in the in the long climb, but with Andrea we did a really good good pace and good teamwork and we c we had um we uh uh catch the the riders in the front in the uh in the descent and in the flat part and uh we did a a good good sprint for the third place. Congratulations. Well done. We’ll see you tomorrow. Thank you. Bye tomorrow. DJ 48 on the finish line here. Now with the current leaders on the stage, the women’s category, Vera Loausa, Alexis Garder, efficient infinity, SCB Stram are on a storming day out. They have an advantage of over three and a half minutes on their nearest that’s Rosean Dawn the need buff memo top Kender FSA 6 minutes and 52 seconds back and uh we’ll be interested to see how they’re going to be fairing but they haven’t reached the top at the Albula pass time check yet so we expect that 7 minutes almost 7 minutes gap to be growing rose Joseph Dorn, Yina V, local rider, Swiss rider heading to the top as the team. There we go. You can see the beautiful views up at the top of the Albula Pass, the women’s category. 16ks to go for the front for the riders at the front efficient infinity SCB Stram. They are quite far down the trail already. This beautiful flow trail that people ride. Riders come from all over the world to uh to try out and keen to take the uh the path of the uh quickest path down as they head down knowing that every second counts. Having lost over three and a half minutes to efficient infinity scram and will be putting down the pressure as much as they can. Hopefully not too many risks and we hope on their behalf because they know that as much as anyone that a slash tire or a crash could cost them minutes. No risks for Buff Meo. That’s the goal as they head down. You can see from the graphics how much time and where they lost the time to Alexis Scarda and Verona. The Bulls team having had a great day out buying in fourth overall. 8 minutes and 46 46 seconds back on the uh on the leading team of Loza and Scara. A podium spot on the day is well within their reach. the Bulls team as Sna and Mare 7 minutes around about one and a half they’d have to make up on that descent. But it is a long descent and a mistake or uh or maybe a slow puncture or something or some fatigue may affect that the performance on the descent. A and Pinella Snow Pine have their work cut out for them. Van Dorn and W seem to be solidly in second place on the stage, but heading for the final, heading for the finish. Verza and Lexus Scott look highly likely to be pulling on that leader jersey we follow. So you need to verse down the uh the flow trail off the Alva pass and just be able to get some graphics, some analysis on just how fast they were compared to uh the pairing of SNA and Mar2. to race day Wednesday. Well, we’re very excited down here in the finish line in the commentary booth to welcome Dario Linda. He’s been out there on the course. We saw him at the top of Alba Pass and then but by some miracle you wrapped down here. That was really quick. How did you manage? Not that quick. A lot of traffic went down on the street. No, actually it was quite interesting up there because I had a chat with a few riders and uh like Lucas Flick for example, his partner exploded. So it was uh yeah something happened on that long uphill to the Alba pass. So a few riders split it up. They came alone up there. They had to wait because this 2minut uh rule and uh then they went down and then yeah we know what happened on the downhill. Well it’s the that’s what it’s all about. It’s about maintaining concentration but also the form. It’s a hard thing in mountain bike stage racing. You never know exactly how you’re going to perform at the very highest level. the tests that they do with the with the physicians, the test they do with a coach, that tells you only so much. But when you’re in race pace, yeah, things are different. And especially this downhill here, the Alvula trail, it starts very slowly, really nice terrain. And at some parts, it’s really rocky. So, and and really narrow and yeah, you really have to take care. So totally changes totally the rhythm and uh that that yeah that’s the hard hard thing on on the way down and even up there a few riders being really exhausted and to go totally exhausted straight into a downhill that makes it even more uh dangerous. That’s exactly it. And uh and nutrition does play a role not only on the uphills but on the downhills too just to stay alert. Really important. But uh just talking about the weather, Daria, we saw uh we saw the weather report. It’s around about 24° in Le Point here where we’re sitting right now. What was the weather like on the on the top? It was a bit windy up there. So, uh headwind for the for the downhill. Uh it was about 17° up there. It was cool, fresh, refreshing. Yeah. But uh yeah, the head was was really strong. Interesting. We would have expected on the top on the top of the alpine passes sometimes it can be really cold can some temperatures can reach single digits y and that can affect the performance of the riders where in the valleys it’s 25° but at the top it’s uh it can be and also the riders have to be well equipped when it comes to garments but in this case not so much where if it was 70° at the top that’s uh that’s okay that’s okay but just two weeks ago there was snowfall up there so up there on the on the on the Alva pass so 2 minutes earlier it would be really freezing. Total different scenario as we had today. Now it’s it’s really it’s okay. It’s fresh. Well, we’re looking at the weather forecast every day because the weather can seriously affect the races, not only the riders, but also um just the the back markers too as well. The uh the preparation that the riders need to uh need to put in to be ready for these kind of conditions is quite vast. You’d need to be ready for really serious cold, some rain, but it could easily be a beautiful warm day like today. We’re in high alpine, so it can change so quickly. So within half an hour, it can change from uh 25° to 15° and and rain and you don’t even expect. Yeah, you have to take care. or those who seem to be thriving in these conditions and the weather is the pairing of Vera Law and Lexus Scarda and they were absolutely storming. They reached the top of the Alba pass first with over a 3 and 1 half minute gap on their nearest rivals but Spar thought for Monica Calderon and Tessa. They were way down at 12 minutes and 27 seconds. We saw them in the picture refueling at the top. The team of Canidel ISP Sport will not be dominating the race like they did last year. Last year we saw them win the first stage, second, third, fourth, fifth stage all the way through. A perfect record and not to be in 2025. Verza and Alexis Carter have um other plans for that. Yeah, Rosa Dawn. Good performance from the Dutchman and the uh the Swiss rider Yinsta, the local rider at that that pass 3 minutes and 19 seconds. with FSA 7 minutes and 13 seconds. So those are the top three, but they are being chased by the Bull Swiss team for that third spot on the podium. Allesian and Kim Ames. That’s probably really good if you’re a Swiss rider. If you’re a local rider, especially this uphill of on the Albula, you have to know that one. So to uh to take care of all the energy and where to drink, where to accelerate, where slow down a little bit. It’s a real long one and really different. That’s a long descent and succession success on the descent for all three of these teams. Success throughout the day in fact, the team of Scott Racing. Second place, the Sanarezi brothers. Fantastic performance once again from the Italians. FSA FSA Robert. But the day truly belonged to the Italian and the Swiss right. An honor for the Swiss South winning the stage in his home race in Switzerland in the Swiss National Championships jersey. And with that will come the yellow jersey selection. They’ll be issued that yellow jersey in just a moment. Does he have to wear the yellow jersey if he wears this beautiful Swiss champion jersey? By the rules of the race and the general rules of uh of general classification at any stage race, the yellow jersey or the leader jersey always supersedes the national championships jersey and any other uh jersey for that matter unless it’s a king of the mountains jersey in the road for example. But the yellow jersey is uh is is the boss. It looks good on him. Both of them and even Fabian Ravenstein. It’s a nice freshly made uh yeah couple. So Casey th was racing a few times in the Swiss epic fab and Ramstein so many times and now wa in the lead after the first stage. Yeah exactly they both been successful Renstein traditional partners been Samorro done very well with Samuel Porro and uh a new pairing new team for Samuel Porro new pairing for Raymondstein. Fantastic. And they take the stage one time. And here they are. Raven Steiner and South. A proud moment for these two. not unaccustomed to being on the podium, but still 2025 edition for these uh experienced racers. It’s a great moment. Yeah, moments to enjoy, but even they have uh two and two minutes and a few seconds to 11 I guess already in the first stage. So uh that makes it quite different for them for tomorrow and for the following days even for the for the chasers. So so they have a lot of chasers now and yeah they’re uh in a different role now. It does depend on how they look could be a target on their backs but the two-minute advantage is just that little bit of a comfortable margin. It means they can ride in defense and riding in defense means that they don’t have to put in too much energy to to to get a gap. They don’t have to necessarily attack. they can just follow. And it will be interesting to see how that plays out in terms of tactics with the race still quite tight in the men’s category, but in the women’s category, it is not tight. There is a 3 minute and 20 second gap more or less to their nearest rivals. Verza and Alexis Scar are storming. They’ve had a fantastic day out. They were over 3 minutes in the lead on the Alvilla pass and uh looks like they might have taken a bit more conservative on the downhill. What that’s the correct way to do it if you’re a mountain bike stage racer is no risks on the down if you are in the lead especially if you are campaigning for the entire week which they definitely are vera having won this race and uh Alexis Garter keen to add this to her palar’s a spar Swiss epic rookie Alexis Carter and and the hard thing is you don’t know what what happens to the other to the other teams so they don’t know if they’re 2 minutes or 3 minutes or four minutes in the lead or whatever. And uh yeah, to handle that that that’s a really hard thing and you probably look after each other as a team than to the to the other competitors. So yeah, that team dynamic is all important. Yeah. Yeah. And uh how you motivate each other and how you talk to each other. And if you’ve heard sometimes out on the course the riders do tell that um they hear rumors out on the course someone shouting a time check to them but they know very well they can’t necessarily rely on that have to be very careful um because they aren’t of course official time checks but uh knows this very well experienced campaigner at mountain bike stage she’s done six spar epics many abs epics and uh has campaigned the epic series the race the world campaign the Epic Series as well. So, she’ll know exactly how to handle herself. And what better guide for Alexis Scarda through her rookie year. It’s almost that she’s spoiled because she doesn’t know what it feels like to not win the race. And although we are speaking too soon, she does have 9 km to go. But with the buffer that they have right now over the Buff Memo team, it’s uh it looks quite likely that they if they keep everything uh they keep their bikes vertical to the ground that they will be likely to succeed and to pull on those jerseys and a fantastic feeling. And the last nine case they’re Yeah. not easy, but um not as dangerous as downhill from the uh from the Alva pass with these rocky sections in there. Yeah. Well, they’ve clearly passed the difficult points of the race and Lexus Scar having a difficult moment here with her partner Ver Loza up ahead of it. Vera knows very well that is important not to leave too much of a gap. It can be a little bit demoralizing and Verza just happy to just tap out a decent rhythm and let Alexis Scardo just follow at her own pace, but important that she doesn’t leave too much of a gap cuz that can be psychologically can have an effect on a partner psychologically. Yeah. For both of them. for the one in the lead and uh and the ones chasing the leader. So uh yeah, well they can enjoy now the beautiful Angadina forest now. Oh, so but they they’ve been really strong on this um last uphill to the Albula bus cuz uh I’ve been there at the bottom and yet all the women’s team been really close together and then the gap opened and opened up and opened up and open up till uh until the up and now yeah looks really good. We have another few long climbs during this whole week. Today started like a cross country course up down up down up down and at the end this long uphill and we have saw more of them especially on second last day with the with the scalleta pass which is uh yeah brutal long and yeah and any fans who tuned in last year when we were crossing the scalleta pass those remote super remote trails um it’s the the wild trails not the flow trails you could say that’s defin Yeah. Yeah, that’s the combination. That’s the unique uh character of the Spice Epic. You get these flow trails, but at the same time, you also get those wild trails that are just completely out there in the open, remote from everywhere. And uh just that’s the this is the charm of the race. Yeah. And the the charm of of this region here. So, Enadine Valley, the valley trails everywhere. And um we’re just using a little bit of them. So like that that little bit little bit. Well, we just seen now the time checks at the 68 km mark. They are uh they have 8 km to go. So they’ve passed the 70 km mark, but the time check at the 68k mark. Efficient infinity, SCB, Stram, Verza, Alexis SCA have a significant advantage of a 4 minute 11second advantage over buff meo. Roseanne and Univist have uh consolidated their loss. They’ve only lost another minute or so on that downhill, but we’re going to be seeing just what the time gap is when they reach the finish. That’s when it all counts. The time finishes when they finish the stage. But at 4 minutes and 11 seconds back for Buff Mega, Rose and Uni Boost, they’ve still got a lot of work to do throughout the week to make up that deficit. Yeah, we but we saw what can happen. So like the the drama with Porto and Stutzman on the downhill and uh things like this can happen anywhere here in this remote uh area here. If you have a flat tire or just like a broken rim, well, it’s a long way till the max service station. And we every day there are a few service stations but yeah the service stations you can not only refuel with nutrition you can you can get some neutral support some repairs from from the mechanics there and um no doubt that the likes of Clemet Oria would have would have taken advantage of that. Um it’s still a difficult situation for them because they know how much time they would have lost and they have to put in maximum effort but uh the idea when you are at the front is to is to take no risks. Yeah. And uh then you have uh you have a clean run at it and uh far less likely to break a wheel, cut a tire. But the team that have shown us all how it’s done is Alexis Scar riding with Vera Loza. Alexa Scarlet we saw struggling a little bit on the uh on the steep uphills. It’s been a long season for her. She’s done a gravel season and now this is towards the end of the season for her as well as Vera Loza. Spar was epic is one of the final highlights of any riders season. Yeah, we have a lot of highlights coming up in Switzerland as well. We have the Swiss here, the first uh highlight. Then uh within a few weeks, the world championship in the Val and then uh in a few weeks like uh September the World Cup in uh in Leride. So it’s a busy day for Swiss uh mountain bike cycling up here. Well, this is really the home of mountain biking, you could say. um with the mountains all around and uh just the qual the quality of the riders, the the caliber of riders that come from Switzerland. I think if you win a Swiss championship, no matter who you are, you’ve done you’ve almost won a world championship because of because of the the depth of the field. We’ve got uh at the very top of that echelon, we’ve got the likes of Nino Sha, 10 time World Cup uh 10 time world champion and multiple World Cup champion. And u in fact, he’s been a winner of this bar. one thing that he had to tick off his list together with L for a few years ago. Yeah, that came together with L Forster. He also won the Absuk epic. It was his uh it was one of his it was his first victory and uh subsequently won again this year in 2025. But from that from that uh from what who they call the GOAT, there is a long string of Swiss riders um including Yita Burst. She’s having a great performance out here today. Yeah. And every year some fresh riders are coming up. So yeah, as as Casey, he’s much better than last year. He’s in the lead now. So he didn’t came out of nowhere, but uh he’s constantly going up and up and up and down. Yeah. The Swiss mountain bike program um from when they’re little children is a is a very effective and very deep program. Yeah. and uh program they learn technical skills before they learn the endurance uh aspect of the sport which is really important especially and it’s very clear when you see the Swiss riders out on the course they’re just so comfortable with the really technical trails and they’re comfortable with whatever you can throw at them and they don’t forget about the fun that’s probably the most important thing what I what I think so yeah I see some pictures that Mark Stoutzman and Lucas Flick have been training together the last few days up here so just just to have fun up here in the angle in Valley and then two days later they’re competing each other. But uh yeah. Yeah. We’re going to be hearing down on the line. More interviews to get a riders point of view from uh what today was all about out on the trails around Grab Windon. Congratulations team. Here we are on the finish line. It’s the Bills Masters, Kell and Carl. A good day for you today. Show us what happened out there. I see you picked up a bit of damage early on. Yeah, I’ve been super lucky today. This is my new souvenir. Uh, but I think I only picked it up 15 km before the finish line and I heard the noise. Uh, but I felt like I was losing air, but I made it to the to the finish line and uh, yeah, super happy. Kella, how are you feeling? Did you work hard on the heels today? How’s the form? How’s the fitness? How’s the partnership? Partnership is great. I mean, we know each other now since 25 years, but also bunch of stage races. So, you know, we know each other in that regard. But, uh, I haven’t done a race this hard since, uh, Croatia for Ireland. So, it’s I I didn’t really know the feeling, but it’s it’s a tough stage. So, yeah, but we felt good except this little uh mishap. All all went really well. Beautiful stage. Carl, you’ve raced here many times. I heard you saying earlier that the trails are absolutely incredible condition. Yeah, once again, Swiss Epic is delivering on a on a very high level. I mean, that weather is just amazing and the trails amazing. The wipe is amazing and the mountains can’t get better. A message to the German nationals happening this weekend. I see there’s a jersey up for grabs. Couple of the German riders not here. Yeah, exactly. A couple of German riders not here. Also our teammate, Simon Schnella. Uh good luck, Simon. Give it horns. And uh we want to see the jersey. See you guys again tomorrow. Good luck. Thank you. Thank you. Oh, we heard there from none other than Carl Platt, a five-time winner of the Absac epic record. Five wins at the uh in the men’s category, riding with his uh his partner Kalif, the masters category. So great that he’s still out there competing, still hasn’t lost that taste for the competition and of course the trails around Switzerland. He loves this area. And we’re back to the women with 5ks to go. Verza leading the way. She seems to be arguably the the stronger partner of the um of the of the pairing of between her and Alexa Scarter and Thomas Ditch is on the ebike following them and he’ll have had a a very good view and a very good account of how things went down. So we’re hoping to hear from Thomas down if he can hear me. Um Thomas, how has today played out in the women’s category? While we’re waiting while we’re waiting to hear from Thomas, you just see some of the men’s category with the amateurs riding alongside the women’s and they won’t interfere with the uh with the proceedings of the race and as per the rules of the race, it’s forbidden for the women to take the draft of any of the other categories and Playing fair is Vera Loza Alexis Scarda letting the other categories amateur categories do their own thing. Riding at an extremely high level. Vera Loza and Lexis Scarda, the American, following her Namibian teammate on the final stages as they just put the finishing touches to their stage, their campaign to take that leaders jersey. The orange leaders jersey, the Chibita jerseys are orange for the women’s category, yellow for the men. honor for these women be winning this stage and uh immediately automatically being in the general classification lead. Looking at the time checks, Van Dun and Worst, they uh were 4 minutes and 11 seconds back and uh Topado team seem to have lost time. Hand over fist 9 minutes and 13 seconds back. We hope that nothing has happened. They are riding together with the Bulls Swiss team. We’ll hear down on the line how that went down. But that third spot on the podium is still up for grabs and two teams in the mix for it with Fandon and W quite far up the road. Second place looks pretty much secure for them. Although they still have some ground to cover. 3 km for the leaders in fact to be exact at that third spot on the podium. Who will it be? So they’re already on the on the way back back to La Punt. That that’s that’s a bad thing about today. So if you come down this hard downhill from the Albula, you already can hear the speaker and every everything from the finishing area. And then okay, first go to the right for another uh nineks. But it’s a it’s beautiful. It’s a it’s it’s a roll out. It’s it’s a cruel twist, but at the same time, that’s all part of the challenge. Yeah. Well, we saw there that uh that the that the team of Topado, Kender, FSA, and the Bull Swiss team were together. So, they’ll be sprinting it out for that third spot on the podium. And uh just saw the sign from Thomas D, who’s been following the lead pair on the ebike, the Bulls media ebike all day. So powering on their campaign heading into the stage finish at La Point. We can almost sense them arriving as Vera Lorza puts down maximum pressure. She knows he has she has to put down as much as as much power as she can to maintain that advantage and to build on that advantage. 4 minutes 11 seconds may seem like a lot of time on stage one, but if you look at the results of any GC of any of these editions at the Spar Pacific, 4 minutes can often be the difference between um 4 minutes is not a lot of time. What we’re saying is that the difference between first and fifth can be often 15 minutes. It all depends on how the week unfolds for them in terms of their firepower, in terms of staying healthy and of course luck with regards mechanicals. But with 2Ks to go, they will enjoy this moment, live day by day and enjoy the celebrations that come with winning their first stage of this year’s Spariss epic. Yeah, even in the women’s category, we have we can expect a real entertaining uh upcoming uh week because uh first day is always uh something special. A lot of things can happen and then from the second day on some different teams are in attack mode and uh going all in. You don’t know if they’re going all in for the stage win on the second stage or on the third stage or they going for the cheesy or what? Yeah, nice riding expecting for the next few days indeed. And uh 4 minutes is still all to play for, especially with the you talked about yesterday, the Scalleti pass. It’s very easy to lose 4 minutes just on that particular pass. Mhm. It’s no guarantees four minutes that you’ll that you’re going to carry that all the way through the race. We’ve seen the likes of the Samperezi brothers lose time. They lost uh they lost their overall lead midway through the race last year and never never got it back. And uh the bikes team Lucas looker and his partner Schmidt, John Schmidt really they made good. Talking of them, they did struggle today. They struggled really. Yeah. Chan struggled a lot today. So, and last year it’s a different situation for them as well because last year they just been the backup team and then the first bikes performance team number one struggled with a flat tire I guess in the second stage or whatever and then they immediately found theel on on a in the lead and uh yeah they took it till the end but that makes them even more dangerous for the next few stages. So uh they they know this place by heart up here and especially for the time trial. I think uh that’s a big advantage if you if you know with high speed if you know all these trails by heart. Every corner counts and uh if you can gain a second every corner that’s probably quite a few seconds by the end of it and that’s just without any without even the firepower um aspect of of things. That makes racing really more interesting during this week with this time trial. That’s a a perfect change this year. It’s a definitely an upgrade for me. So, it’s a new twist for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Vera Loza and Alexa Scarda. They are pulling it to the finish and they’re just about to cross the finish line. The team of efficient infiniti SCV Stram Vera Laws Alexa of the American and Libyan putting the final celebration of a fantastic day out. A 78 km stage, 2,400 meters of climbing and they are victorious. By our guess, they’ll have over a fourminute advantage over their rivals of above Megamo. That was the last time check and we saw them powering towards the finish. They’re maintaining that advantage that they’d earned so well over the early part of the stage and of course on the Alba pass putting a consistent effort down, a good rhythm and a welldeserved win from Loza and Scarda. So, some diagnosis of the stage from these two riders and we’ll be looking forward to hearing from uh from Max Clear on the line when he interviews them exactly how it all went down. It looked like it was plain sailing, but it never is in mountain biking. That’s the art of it is to make it look easy. It’s uh it’s maybe it’s one way to psych out your rivals, but uh certainly for this pairing, they didn’t put a single foot wrong. Alexis Scarda and uh Vera Law, fantastic day out for them and a great buffer for them. We wait over four minutes. It seems like we’re waiting for the for their nearest rivals Buff Mega Mo. But right now it’s all about getting wiping the mud off the face and putting on a clean top ready for the ready for the podium. And uh it’s a new team this too. No, haven’t seen him racing them together or they have raced together before but not at the Spar Swiss Epic because of course this is this is Alexa Scarlet’s rookie year at the Spar Swiss Epic. But they have raced raced before together. They’ve raced the Cape Epic together. So they’re you could say a well tried partnership and that is really the key to the dynamics of these uh of any team in the uh in mountain bike stage racing but also really important that that they have tested each other at the limit. That’s uh that’s and obviously the absic is the most competitive mountain bike stage race in the world and they’ve tested their partnership at that limit which is a very high limit. So perfect for perfect preparation for this year. But you never know what to expect from the high altitude up here if you’re in Lean Valley or around the FOA. We’ve been on over 2,500. We going up on to two 3,000 mters later on in the week. So um yeah, that will affect the body for sure. Um and uh you have to watch out. Well, Buff Mega from the graphics are almost at the finish here at La Point. We’ll see them drift through and well, we should never say drift through because they are powering. They are putting in maximum effort to minimize the damage that they know up front. They know that Alexis Garder and Vera Law are up front. They might not know exactly how many minutes. They might have a guess. They might have somebody they know out on the trails telling them what the gap is. But they’ll only know for sure once the official timing results are out. But for sure they have lost time to the uh partnership of Verza. The buff Megalo know exactly what they have to do. They have to stay in contention. They have to stay on the gas until the very last meter. Not giving a single second up. Not a single second more than they need to because every second could count when it comes to later in the week. The women’s day belongs to your champions today team and Alexis. Well, we’re about to see Rosan Dur the 24y old heading in leading in the team. You need a voice. Rosean Dorn. Fantastic performance from these two. Second place on the stage having uh maintained that uh that disadvantage they had. They were around about 4 minutes 20 at the time check. We’ll give you some exact timings in a moment. But as the time clicks on, we wait for the third place team out on the course today. And we did see a bit of a battle developing between the Bulls Swiss team and the Chapata Kender FSA team. And they were on equal time more or less. Little bit of a gap back to the Swiss team. that third spot on overall. The Topata Kender FSA team will be looking to take that spot. Prestigious final spot on the first day at the 2025 edition of the Spa Swiss Epic. And here we catch a glimpse of the Topata Kender FSA team. and um they look to be still they have a little bit of advantage over the Bulls Swiss team. So that podium spot, that final spot on the overall of the podium for for today, it looks like it could be theirs, but they still cannot relax. They’ve still got a bit to go. couple of kilometers, two or three minutes before we see them at the finish. But uh it’s just all about maintaining that effort and not giving up because they know that the Bulls Swiss team are breathing down their necks. Just from the graphic, you see how far away from the finish, how close they are to the finish. the top teams out on the day and we’re going to be hearing from the winners in just a moment. All right, here we go. What a way to start stage one. Vera and Alexis, an incredible day for you. Uh, take us through that to Vera. Nice to be in the leaders jersey, the orange chevita leaders jersey on stage one. Yes, I’m super excited to do that. But I mean, we know it’s still a long week and and we also had the leaders jersey on day one and then we lost it again, but we’ll do everything to keep onto the jersey this time and break my second place streak. Alexis, so good to see you again. We saw you last at the Absa Cape Epic earlier on in the year. You guys had an incredible campaign there. Uh off the plane, a little bit of jet lag, you got no luggage, but you come away with a win. It can’t be that bad. No, I definitely feel good. Um couldn’t ask for much more than that. and I uh all thanks to a strong partner and uh definitely all the support we have over here is huge. Let’s take us through the beginning of the racing today. You two got away quite early. It wasn’t anything that was planned. You just seem to stretch the legs a bit and keep the tempo. Yeah. Um you kind of don’t want to want to wait around too long and then we saw we were going a good pace and it was just us and Buff Mega Mo left and then we saw him was off the pace a little bit and then I just thought, okay, let’s just try. Eh, I mean, we’re here to race. We’re not here to have a Sunday cruise. So, we went for it. But yeah, it was still a long way to the finish. And that albola pass is no joke. Hey, it’s a long way. I have it on my garment. It’s like 21 kilometers of climbing coming up. I’m like, “Oh, that’s a long run.” Did you face any demons out there? Obviously, some big climbing. This is is the queen stage. Did it talk queen stage to you all day? Oh, yeah. That that climb definitely beat me up a little bit. I was just keeping my eyes on Vera and uh she was saying all the right things to kind of keep me motivated. I uh was starting to cramp a little bit and uh just kind of like holding it together. Well done today. Congratulations. We’ll see you tomorrow. Definitely nice to hear from that that they struggled as well on on on this Albula climb. So, it’s it’s a real long one and it’s a real hard one. It looks so easy, but Yeah. Well, they make it look so easy. They make it look so easy. That’s right. Yeah, that is, as we said earlier, the art of it is that they make it look easy, but it’s not. And it’s just good to see a little bit of human humanness in the in what seemed like a completely unbreakable performance from from those from those two. They looked unflapable. They looked in charge all day. And interesting to see that they they too had their own struggles internally and uh and out on the course. Yeah. And especially Vera said that uh she had a look on her uh on her computer and said 30ks and uh she’s used to that but she still got uh shocked when she’s uh she’s riding the Swiss epic the the highness and uh and the trails is not just the highness it’s the trails are hard as well. Congratulations. This race poses a challenge on so many aspects. And that’s what what is so easy to to forget is that it’s not just about uh the trails. It’s not just about the surfaces. It’s about the competitors and it’s about keeping you uh the pacing right. Nutrition. There’s just a a constant barrage of things that that are coming at you all the time. And to have to remember all of those things and to stay in touch, it does take it takes a lot of experience, a lot of poise. And any rider who crosses this finish line from the back of the field to the front of the field, they deserve that finishes medal for sure because it’s it’s a it’s a challenge on so many levels. But you forgot something. You forgot two things. Two challenges. You forget the cow slum. Probably later on in the week. We will see that. We hope so. And the qualum. You still know what kafladen is. Well, you’ll be explaining it to us during the week, I’m sure. Uh, sure. Sure. I will. Yeah. So, yeah. on if you have to ride slalom on a straight trail, the cow’s been there before. We’ve seen some cows in the in on the trail in the last few years, right? Yeah. Yeah. It’s always nice to see the to see the happy cows out on the out on the course. Yeah. And during that season, they’re still in in the highness. Just having a look at that stage analysis, just seeing how the dominant performance fared out in terms of the stats. the early sections pretty much leading all of those sections. Loza and Scarda and a little Albula pass perhaps losing a little bit of time and uh Rose of Van Dorn and Universt having a fantastic performance on that Alba pass just consolidating and getting back some of some of that deficit but uh still all to play for. It’s clear that that Buff Meabo have formed and they will be no doubt the biggest challenges to Loza and Scarda. 30 seconds. scenes of the finish in La Point at the Spice Epic. And we’re going to be hearing in a moment from the second place finishes of the day. Buff Mega, Yanina, and Rosa. 4 minutes 21 is the gap. Second place today. How you feeling after that stage? It looked quite brutal. Yeah, it was a hard stage, but so so beautiful. I think it’s a big present as mountain biker to ride here your bike. Yeah, we have now four minutes gap. Uh VA and Alex make a gap after 1 hour and we decide to push our own tempo and to be stick to our plan and that was to be a bit faster in the last climb and it’s worked out. So we are proud. You how you feeling on your home trails? Nice to be riding your home trails. We still got four days to go. It’s all in. Yeah, it’s super nice to be here. Um it’s one of my favorite places on earth. So quite nice. What was the best part of the racing for you today? Which part did you like the most? Yeah, the long downhill. The last long downhill was amazing. And for you? Um yeah, the downhill was nice, but uh one time you have so much pain in your arms because it’s never ending. But it’s nice. Well done today. Good luck for tomorrow. We’re very proud of you. Well done. show. She she uh sore in the hands from this uh from this downhill. Even after the long stage like this, and even for a Swiss person, even for a Swiss band, she’s used to trails like that. Exactly. That just shows how hard it is. That’s an easy one. It’s an incredible challenge not just to go up the climbs, but also to go down and keep on keep yourself in one piece, not crash, but that that riders talk about that arm pump from constantly being on the brakes and off the brakes all the time. Yeah. Different setup probably for the bike as well day by day. If you have a downhill like that on the on the last part, you probably uh Yeah. have to think about tire choice probably the brakes positioning bars everything and also watch out for your teammate. Yeah, that’s the most important thing probably. Yeah. Yeah. Well, there are the final results as descriptive as it gets. The team of Loaus and Scarda 4 hours and 4 minutes of racing 52 seconds with a 4 minute 21 lead over Van Duran and V. The nearest challenges buff meo top Kender FSA 8 minutes and 12 back um holding at bay the Bulls Swiss team. Here we go now. Team Top Kenda, a great day for you. Third place today. You four minutes off second. Kazina, a good day for you today. Yes, I’m a little bit suffer altitude, but it’s very good. Georgia make this race very regular and this is fine. And for me, it’s only first day, day by day. Georgia, how was your day? Yes, it was a great day. We start very well and we we collaborate together and I’m happy for the results. Still four days to go, 4 minutes on second. Just on 8 minutes to first place. There’s absolutely nothing in it. And you’re on the podium. Yes. Uh yes, for sure. Uh probably yes. Uh for for second or maybe first place. What no do? Congratulations. Well done. Thanks. Thanks very much. Thank you. Thank you. Well, seeds for the start finish of stage one in Leont here. And uh we heard from the third place riders out on the stage. Third place today, 8 minutes and 12 seconds down. But let’s spare a thought for the Canondelle ISB sport team favorites going into the race dominant last year and at the last time check having lost well over 12 minutes. So we’ll be keen to hear from the interviews and just from our chats to them down on the line exactly what went wrong for Monica Calderon and Tessa Cortas. empty. Yeah, real good performance last year. All has been in the fight, but uh yeah, looks a bit different. And here they are. Monica Caldron and Tessa Cordic still spirits high. They’ve got still got a unique bond, the two of them at 16 minutes and 43 seconds. Their campaign for overall general classification looks like it’s over. It’s over. Yeah. But not for the stage wins. H don’t forget that there. Yeah, that makes them even more dangerous because of course it adds a new dynamic to stage racing when there are riders of their strength and their ability racing for stages because they can extend and and stretch the race out and um often leave leaves extra inadvertent allies for the other riders. For example, if Lexus Scarda and Ver Loza need to tag on the back of a of an ambitious Monica Calderon and Tessa Cordas who are aiming for the stage who’ve rested the day before, that will then put the other teams at a disadvantage if they are not quite um able to able to follow the firepower of those two teams. So that’s how tactical tactics will play out. But let’s have a quick look at the analysis of the men’s category. Raven Steiner and South, they finished fastest and just having a look at the pairing of Aras and Taffel doing really well at that Burgen camping uh section. But all in all, the team that put it all together the best and the most consistently was the team of Ravensteiner and Casey South. Casey South, I have to find out who was the fastest team on the Alvula bus on the downhill. It is not a top six team. That’s uh Well, that’s interesting that there was a team that obviously wanted to get that enduro section. Not a come, which is quite possible. Yeah. Yeah. Does look like that Raven Ravensteiner and South were very much in touch. Just over just 5 seconds off the very fastest speed, but really interesting to see like you said, Daria, who was the who was the quickest on that section. Just a look at the final results once again, the winners of the stage, Fabian, Ravensteiner, and Casey South. Topata Kenda FSA leading the Samperezi brothers KTM Sparta powered by Bren 2 minutes 11 seconds back finishing at the same time and Goria Scott racing and also in that group losing out on a spot on the podium no doubt keen for tomorrow make good Taffel and Arise from Metallergica Vanetta on Mike Pro team 2 minutes and 13 seconds is the record on the stage one Scott racing too also a good performance and a good sign for the third place team, but they have a very strong backup. Urs Hubone still on the list just outside the top 10 riding with Rudil Cinette and just some familiar names going down the list. Mr. Morsillo and Scott Palandido Calamando, a well-known exponent of stage racing. Not quite a great day for him, but still great to be out in the Alps. I’m sure he’s excited to be riding in one of the riders favorites races in in the world on the circuit. Unfortunate we just saw there flash off the screen the winners from last year. The defending champions losing several minutes way out of contention now. the Flukiger pairing the pairing of Fluker and his partner John Schmidt. Unfortunate for them, but that’s how it goes in mountain bike stage racing. Maybe a stage win from them. Definitely a kind of him. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely stage tra within the next few days, especially uh this time tri thing. They’re both really fast on the downhills normal and uh they know this region very good. So every Swiss mountain bike is training up here uh for sure once or twice a season high altitude training and uh yeah the national team is always up here and uh the team bikes performance race team they have a partner up here with a hotel with the bevel so they they here all the time they know the trails now from now on they go on stage attack mode. or let’s hope that it’ll add some fireworks to the whole dynamic of the racing. Like we were saying in the women’s category, it’ll be just like that in the men’s category. As soon as riders drop out of the overall contention, it it causes chaos and um means that we have as fans we have exciting viewing. So good for us. I like chaos. Exactly. Really? Those that can master the chaos are the ones that succeed as we heard from Stefan S earlier. He’s uh he was a master of that and um he understood innately that the Clementeza team the Clemetza Oria team they had to manage that situation that broken wheel and by all accounts they did an admirable job. They still stayed in contention. They are still more or less in contention for certainly for a podium. So good for them. Yeah. And that makes them really dangerous for the next few days and certainly if they want to be winning stages. Exactly. Yeah. That’s their biggest threat. Even though they’re not close on close as close on GC as the Sanarees, for example, they are they’re the team that’ll be watched by um by Fabian Ravenstein and Casey South. Imagine that if you’re Ravensteiner and Katy T, you have the Saninis and it’s a lot to manage. Yeah. Well, getting ready for the podium presentations. Rosa Van Duran and Dina Voina Swiss National Rosa Van Dun wearing the champion champion of U Holland and a great lineup here. We can see two national champions and one continental champion out of six riders. Fantastic sight to see. Topa came to FSA. Great result from this pairing just keeping the team bulls Swiss team out just out of contention for a podium. Admirable performance from them. Buff memo perhaps the favorites going into the race. We thought we expected them to win today but that is to take away from the tremendous performance from God and Vera Loza. Efficient Infinity SCB Stram team rule the day and they will go into the Chvita orange leaders jerseys. Oh, it’s all about that photograph they’ve got to get. It’s a me moment that they’ll all remember being on the podium of a stage race of this stature is a moment that uh that you never want to forget. And goes down to those palares as Alexis Scarda and Vera Loza get ready to pull on those orange leader jerseys. and back to the podium. Please welcome. And there they are on the podium. Smiles all around for the uh pairing the Libyan and the American as they give themselves a little bit of a round of applause and welld deserved. I think it’s more of a sense of gratitude um because uh amount of performance the amount of preparation that the riders have to go through just to get to this moment just to get to the start and sometimes on the podium can be relief more than more than glory and and no doubt another crowning moment in the list of achievements from Vera Loza right next to the office on the finish line. Well, that was an unfortunate incident on the finish line and it’s just another lesson. We hope that everyone’s all right there. Everyone seems to be getting up, but really important that uh the concentration is never dropped because the race isn’t over until you actually step off the bike, not just when you cross the finish line. We hope that everyone is okay. Righters will be attended to. Having a look at the Masters results, Paul Platt and Kal Freeberg winning the Masters category. 3 hours and 51 minutes 3, 9 seconds of racing, 14 minutes advantage over their nearest rivals, APT and another Swiss team in the mix here of PS riding two 14 minutes and 18 seconds rounding out that podium for the Masters. the grand masters category. That’s 50 years and up. The team of Anders and Drs. 4 minutes and 12 hours of racing and 25 seconds leading Schneider and Infelt Danny Schneider Rodport. This is uh Manisha is one of the last he did every Swiss epic since the beginning together with Pat I guess and not only doing everyone he’s he’s on the podium. He’s on the podium. Yeah. All the time he he started master grandmasters he started mixed and open man I guess. So all the different categories he made. He used to be a former uh Swiss road race champion and yeah he loves the Swiss Epic even as a Swiss guy doing that every every year. Well it’s testament to the race and the experience that the that the riders get to get to have when they come to the Spar Swiss Epic is the perfect mix the perfect blend of alpine scenery uh flow trails wild trails and not discounting the uh legendary Swiss hospitality. Oh, we’ve all been looked after here in Switzerland here in La Point and enjoying our times in the Grab Bundon region, the home of some of the most beautiful trails in the world. This is tomorrow stage. So, another nice up and down through the Angadine Valley. A few different trails. The Olympia flow trail. We seen the forepas flow trail and uh some fl real fast and hard downhills. So it’s going to be a different stage tomorrow with different underground with different uh trails. Uh we’re looking forward with that and with different racing and all about exactly the variety of the trails and also the highest we’re going we’ve gone so far at two over 2,500 m. Yeah. slow. We’ll see how the altitude affects the riders and uh hopefully not in any adverse way, but it will add something to the mix of the racing. Those who are not prepared, who not ready for it, who’ve come from low altitude training will uh will need to be uh consolidate their uh their efforts and try to limit the damage cuz that’s it really it’s real the altitude. Yeah, we can feel it. Thank you very much. Thank you, Dario. It was great to be here commentating on commentating once again at this uh prestigious race and we’re looking forward to seeing a fantastic week of racing. We’ve seen some high octane racing at the moment even so far and uh those climbs are just absolutely brutal but beautiful. But beautiful. Yeah. As you So you got a chance to enjoy that view at the top of Albula Pass. Sure. Yeah. Even as a Swiss person, having been here many times, it still doesn’t get it still doesn’t get old. No, never. Never. This area never You never get bored of this area. You always find something new. You always find a new trail. It’s even different if it’s wet, if it’s dry. Yeah. Perfect. And you going to get a chance to get on your on your bike today? I already been on the bike yesterday uh in the fall. Made a few trails there. today. I’m not sure, but probably I will to check out some of the flow threads from tomorrow stage. That’ll be a good idea. You can give us some insights as to exactly exactly what it looks like cuz the trail surface does change depending on the weather. Uh depending on the weather, if it’s dry, if it’s uh if it’s wet, uh if it’s hot, if it’s really hot. So, yeah, they will change for sure. And it was really bad the last few weeks. Yeah, buzzy. We’ve been having some amazing weather and tomorrow’s prediction. We’ve been having some big racing hours. Congratulations. Well, that wraps up another unforgettable day here at the 2025 Spa Swiss Epic. From the high alpine climbs to the roaring descents into the Engadin. All the riders have shown us from the front to the back grit, skill, and shown us the pure spectacle of the race. We’ll be back tomorrow for more drama uh from the Swiss Alps and the kind of racing that will keep us coming back for more. Until tomorrow, from all of us from Switzerland’s stunning Grab Bundon region, thanks for joining. You didn’t realize. You didn’t realize. He told us about five times. I said, “Okay, good.” Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Why are you talking for you? You know, heat Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Get up. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.
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