To mark the 10th anniversary of the downhill race, everyone involved will once again celebrate the end of the iXS Swiss Downhill Cup season in Bellwald. The racers will be riding for the final points in the overall standings on the perfectly prepared 2200-metre course with a 400-metre difference in altitude. The fast course is the highlight of the season for many riders.

In the "Elite Men" category, it looked for a long time as if Slawomir Lukasik (POL - NS Bikes) could win the race. The European Cup winner made himself quite comfortable in the hot seat for a long time, and none of the following riders came close to his time. It was not until around 40 starters later that series leader Basil Weber (SUI - Team Project) beat the reigning European champion's time by a further three seconds with a time of 3:35.413 minutes. At this point, it is already clear that Weber has the series win in the bag and all further finishes will only have an influence on the day's result. In the end, however, no one can take this victory away from him. Only Swiss champion Lutz Weber came between him and Lukasik, securing second place overall ahead of Felix Klee (SUI - Team Project).

Swiss champion also Cup winner

A duel between Géraldine Fink (SUI - Pink Gravity) and Lea Rutz (SUI - iXS Gravity Union) is already looming in the women's elite. The two are separated by just 14 points. After the seeding run, the gap was reduced even further to just eight points. This made the tension for the final run all the greater. Swiss champion Lea Rutz came out on top against Géraldine Fink with a time of 4:20.465 minutes and a lead of over four seconds. Rutz not only won the day, but also the overall ranking. Kim Schwemmer (GER - Herobikes) took third place in the daily classification. In the series classification, young Swiss hopeful Eva Battolla (SUI - Magmabike) secured third position.

In the "Pro Youth U17" class, Vincent Arbellay (SUI - Cyclone DH Team) snatched the day's victory with a wafer-thin lead of just four tenths of a second and thus also the title of series winner. The victim of this was Janosch Klaus (SUI - Team Project), who had been leading the overall standings up to that point, and thus found himself in second place. The situation was different in the U19 category, where Jannis Lehmann (SUI) did not set the fastest time either, but was able to retain the series lead thanks to his large points advantage. The day's winner was Loris Michellod (SUI - Verbier Bikepark), who took his first victory and will probably be a favorite in his second junior season next year.

Bellwald success story continues

In sunny but cool conditions, the organization in Bellwald, including the supporting events, once again put on a worthy race at the end of the season. After celebrating its 10th anniversary, the race's success story is set to continue in the coming years. The athletes will now be sent off into the winter break and the subsequent preparation for the coming season. This marks the end of the 14th iXS Downhill season. The 2017 iXS Cup calendar is expected to be published around the end of the month.

Results overall ranking

www.ixsdownhillcup.com