FEATURE

Rohrbach & Leumann win the 2017 Snow Bike Festival

By Snow Bike Festival

Gstaad’s Promenade was once again home of the start to the third and final stage of the Snow Bike Festival. This stage took the riders from the Promenade through the picturesque Chalet area of Gstaad, deep into the Turbachtal and then down the beautiful and stunning Lauenental. Then finally down the ski slopes of Wispile to the finish line.

Will Nicola Rohrbach be able to defend his Qloom leader jersey? His advantage on the very strong Florian Chenaux sits at just around 45 seconds?

Nicola Rohrbach quickly takes a commanding lead and race ahead to secure himself the Land Rover Mountain Prize. He leaves his closest rivals over one minute behind him. Rohrbach defends his lead down past the stunning village of Lauenen. He left his fellow competitors no chance on the way back to the Land Rover Finish Village and was the first to cross the finish line, after 1 hour and 20 minutes. He’s the first to cross the finish line after 1hour and 20 min.

Chenaux secures second place, after a hard fight with Sascha Weber and Joris Ryf. Another 3rd place for Germany’s Weber and an excellent 4th place for the young Swiss Joris Ryf.
 

A surprise in the women’s race. Hielke Elferink, the winner of the 2016 Snow Bike Festival, races ahead shortly after the start and defends her lead all the way to the Land Rover Finish Village. She rides home a commanding 4-minute lead. Why this sudden change of fortune? Elferink struggled a lot with the setup of her bike. For today’s stage, she chose a normal mountain bike and showed a solid performance. “I felt something was wrong. I had a good season and I trained a lot, not too intensive, but even so. I could not explain why I couldn’t compete with Leumann and Süss. I just tried using another bike, and it felt so much better!”, she said with a big grin covering her face.

Elferink is the only woman who was able to beat Katrin Leumann. Leumann finished second, with Süss in third. It’s been another close race between Leumann and Süss. Cornelia Hug finishes in 4th and Nathalie Schneitter 5th.

In the GC Nicola Rohrbach and Katrin Leumann secure victories at the first UCI stage race on snow. Florian Chenaux and Markus Bauer finish 2nd and 3rd. The women’s podium is completed by Esther Süss (2nd) and Cornelia Hug (3rd).

Another splendid day in Gstaad concludes the 2017 Snow Bike Festival. A huge thank you to Gstaad-Saanenland Tourism, Gstaad Marketing GmbH, our sponsors and most of all the support of all volunteers and the local community.