FEATURE

Snow Bike Festival 2016 in Gstaad (SUI) | Mountainbiking: Stage 2

By quattro media

Stage 2 of the Snow Bike Festival started this morning with a bit of an overcast and with a more comfortable reading on the thermometer compared to yesterday morning. The start was again situated in the scenic Promenade in Gstaad from where the riders headed to towards the Eggli for the first climb of the day. On top of the Eggli the sun, with a deep clear blue sky behind it, was shining brightly down onto the golden clouds that were covering the lower parts of the mountains.
 
The terrain however was a bit more slippery today compared to yesterday as some of the ice on the roads began to melt due to the warmer conditions. Konny Looser (5th) said the following after the race: “the surface was a lot softer today with the bike dipping further into the snow which took more energy than the day before and made it really tough”. As on stage 1, Johann Tschopp did not fail to live up to his reputation for being an excellent climber as he arrived first on the top of the Eggli and for the second day in a row and won the Land Rover King of the Mountain prize. He was closely followed by Tomas Misser and Daniel Gathof. All of our podium finishers of Stage 1 arriving in the top 3 on top of the mountain. Hielke Elferink was also once again our Queen of the Mountain by being the first women to arrive on the top of the Eggli followed by Alba Wunderlin and Laura Turpijn.
 

Photo courtesy of quattro media

From thereon out the riders headed for the downhill and with Tomas Misser being the better downhill racer it delivered for an exciting race down with him and Johann Tschopp arriving together on the bottom of the slope with the distance between them being wiped out. Daniel Gathof was trailing the leaders by about 100 meters behind at that stage. Ryan Scott all the way from South Africa said the following of the downhill: “It was extremely slippery and a nice challenge but a lot of fun! Luckily no injuries have been reported at the time of writing.
 
The riders were then all riding in the direction of Feutersoey and Gsteig with the route taking them next to the Saane river and back and forth on the routes towards the mountains and back to the main route between Gstaad and Gsteig. In Gsteig the route took the riders through a cowshed which is quite symbolic as Gstaad is known for its 7000 Simmental cows (equal to the number of people living here). The locals welcomed the riders to the cowshed with alp horns and loud cheers which gave the riders the ultimate Swiss experience.
 

Photo courtesy of quattro media

The end of the race was a tightly contested affair as the top 3 men riders were all very close to each other. In the final stretch back is when the drama of the day occurred, Daniel Gathof went through some deeper snow which got him stuck. This allowed Johann Tschopp and Tomas Misser the opportunity to pull away from yesterday’s third place finisher. The lead was constantly exchanged between Johann Tschopp and Tomas Misser in the end back to Gstaad with the latter ultimately securing the victory with an exhilarating sprint to the finish line which was again at the bottom of the Eggli. Tomas Misser at the finish line – “I am very lucky to have won the sprint and the stage, both Johann and myself can be thankful for the fact that Daniel made the mistake as he was also in contention to win the race.” For the ladies there was no change in places on the podium from stage 1 as Hielke Elferink won the stage, Alba Wunderlin came in second and Laura Turpijn secured herself a very solid third place.
 
*See the latest results and the overall standings at: www.snowbikefestival.com/results/