Nino Schurter has made a brilliant return to the bike scene after his detour to the Tour de Romandie. With a dry start in the middle of the race, the Grisons rider created the decisive gap to his pursuers and won solo with a 26-second lead. In doing so, he forced the numerically superior BMC team to take up the chase. Schurter's Scott teammate Florian Vogel in turn benefited from this, as he was able to ride in the first chasing group virtually in a sleeping car. Thanks to this tactically favorable constellation, Vogel saves enough energy to prevail against a whole armada of BMC riders in the finale. Lukas Flückiger grudgingly finished third. Julien Absalon, who arrived in Solothurn full of hope after two World Cup victories and a BMC triumph, was never able to intervene in the top fight.

"Because Lukas Flückiger and Martin Fanger didn't ride with me, Flo Vogel left a gap to the front. That wasn't actually planned so early on. After that it was like a time trial for me," explained Nino Schurter. And Vogel added: "The race was very special. But that's been the case in Solothurn for years, because the race is a mixture of mountain bike and road racing." "You can win or lose the race in Solothurn in the first five minutes. I lost it today," commented Lukas Flückiger, who finished third and was the first BMC rider to cross the finish line. He had actually wanted to win. "But things went against us today. When Nino Schurter was gone, we had to do all the chasing," said Flückiger. "Moritz Milatz, Martin Fanger and Ralph Näf sacrificed themselves for the benefit of the team."

Absalon, who finished fourth, said that he was still feeling the hustle and bustle and the journey after his victory at the World Cup in Cairns, Australia. It had been a difficult preparation for the race in Solothurn. "Of course it's unfortunate when we lose here despite our numerical superiority. But Nino was really very strong," acknowledged the World Cup leader.

Women: Esther Süss 5th triumph in Solothurn
With a dry start in the penultimate of six laps, Esther Süss laid the foundations for her fifth victory in the BMC Racing Cup in Solothurn. The 40-year-old rider from the Wheeler team in Küttig was able to distance herself from her first pursuers, World Cup winner Eva Lechner (Colnago) and the young Frenchwoman Margotte Moschetti, by 38 seconds and more. Kathrin Stirnemann, one of the race animators, was poorly rewarded with fourth place, but was unable to keep up with the pace of the top riders in the final. Süss was not at all sure of herself: "Since the first World Cup race in Pietermaritzburg, I've hardly been able to breathe. So I started the race in Solothurn feeling insecure." The fact that the pace was not so fast at the start of the race suited her very well. When she was still able to keep up with the best after three laps, her confidence returned. On the fifth lap, she attacked and got away decisively.

"I was still struggling after the traveling and the emotions after my victory at the World Cup in Australia," said Lechner. She made a mistake just as Esther Süss and Kathrin Stirnemann had slightly pulled away on the climb in the forest. Süss was then unable to catch up with her, commented the South Tyrolean. Frenchwoman Margotte Moschetti's third place was a surprise. The U23 rider achieved her best result in her second year as a junior when she came second at the European Championships in Moscow. However, she was unlucky in her first year as an U23 rider. A cruciate ligament rupture cost her almost her entire racing season in 2013. She was therefore all the happier that she was able to finish third in the field of top riders.

Timon Rüegg won the junior race ahead of Remo Müggler and Patrick Zumstein. In the juniors, Nicole Koller took her third win in a row ahead of world champion Alessandra Keller and Sina Frei. Nicole Koller's lap times were impressive; her lap times were significantly faster than those of the women's winner.

At the start of the three-day bike festival, Patrick Lüthi and Eva Lechner won the Eliminator race on Friday evening.

Results at www.bmc-racing-cup.ch/bmc-2014/resultate/resultate.php