The suspicion that Julien Absalon could be handicapped by his allergy is not confirmed. In the first two laps, it is his BMC team-mate Ralph Näf who leads the field. However, Näf then struggles and Absalon catches up with the leading group. He and Martin Fanger then pulled away from U23 Swiss champion Lars Forster and Reto Indergand on the fourth lap.

In the seventh of nine 3.8-kilometre laps, Absalon finally gets serious. This also costs Fanger the connection and ultimately leads to the Frenchman's 13th victory in the Swiss series. "It's great to celebrate the first victory in the rainbow jersey here. I'm very happy that it went so well today. I've been training a lot of intensity over the past two weeks and that must have made me fit. Before that I was just a diesel because of the allergy," explains Absalon. Martin Fanger is by no means disappointed with his second place and is pleased with his good form: "It was great to be able to ride together with my teammate Julien for so long. But at some point I had to let him go. But I think I've confirmed my great form."

Fanger was caught once again by the surprising Lars Forster, but in the final lap, climbing specialist Fanger was able to pull away from the winner of the U23 classification. Forster was a surprise runner-up a few kilometers away in Buchs a year ago, albeit in completely different conditions. It had snowed there, while the temperatures in Schaan on Sunday were wonderful.
"I actually had a problematic winter because I had to take five weeks off after an injury. That's why I'm very happy with how it went, it can go on like this," explains Wheeler iXS rider Lars Forster. Lukas Flückiger and Matthias Stirnemann finished in fourth and fifth place respectively.

Start-to-finish victory for Neff
"I thought I would continue the BMC Racing Cup in the same way as I finished it at the end of the 2014 season in Muttenz." Jolanda Neff from the Stöckli Pro Team has every reason to smile. The rider from Thal set herself apart on the first of seven laps and gradually extended her lead, even after she appeared to ease off the gas on the last three laps. At the end of the 27-kilometer race, Neff has a lead of over two minutes on Wheeler iXS rider Esther Süss. "With such a start-finish victory, it was of course perfect for me," said Neff, summing up her sixth race win in a row in the BMC Racing Cup.

Esther Süss is beaming at least as much as the winner. After the Cape Epic did not go as she had hoped, she was a little unsure. And she didn't have a particularly good feeling on Saturday.
"I was already nervous and yesterday I had tired legs. I thought it wouldn't work out. But this morning the physio said my legs were fine. Then I thought, just go for a ride. I'm really happy that it went so well," says a delighted Esther Süss.

She is in second position for the entire duration of the race and doesn't let the three-time Olympic medal winner Sabine Spitz get close. The 43-year-old German was 3:31 minutes behind. After her first mountain bike race of the current season, however, she is very satisfied. "I've only ridden two road races, which is different in terms of the strain. But the rhythm changes were relatively easy for me, so I'm very happy," explains Spitz.

The following places were taken by two-time U23 World Cup winner Helen Grobert from the Ghost Factory Racing Team from Germany and World Championship runner-up Irina Kalentieva from the Möbel-Märki Racing Team from Russia.

World champion wins in the juniors
In the absence of the best Swiss juniors, who were competing in a UCI Junior Series race at the same time, Jeremias Bürgin won after six laps, a good ten seconds ahead of Joel Suter and 22 seconds ahead of Nick Baumann. In the junior women's race, world champion Nicole Koller wins by over three minutes ahead of Sina Frei, who slipped up and then couldn't really find her rhythm. Austrian Katja Neuner, who rides for the Fischer BMC team, finished third.

The amateur race goes to Jürg Graf from Montlingen, who wins 30 seconds ahead of Thomas Schmid from Diepoldsau and 48 seconds ahead of the German David Horvath.

www.bmcracingcup.ch

1st round BMC Racing Cup, Schaan/FL
Men
1.	Julien Absalon (FRA)	BMC Mountainbike Racing Team	1:36:26.0
2.	Martin Fanger (SUI)	BMC Mountainbike Racing Team	+0:28.0
3.	Lars Forster (SUI)	WHEELER - iXS Team	+0:46,5
4.	Lukas Flückiger (SUI)	BMC Mountainbike Racing Team	+1:33.5
5.	Lukas Flückiger (SUI)	Möbel Märki MTB Pro Team	+2:05.7
6.	Matthias Stirnemann (SUI)	KOCH ENGINEERING / MÜSING RACING TEAM	+2:51,8
7.	Reto Indergand (SUI)	BMC Mountainbike Racing Team	+3:24.0
8.	Mathias Flückiger (SUI)	Stöckli Pro Team	+3:38.4
9.	Florian Chenaux (SUI)	Zimmermann Bergamont Mathieu SA	+3:51.2
10.	Kevin Panhuyzen (BEL)	Peer Ktm Bike-Vision	+4:10,6
Women
1.	Jolanda Neff (SUI)	Stöckli Pro Team	1:26:02,8
2.	Esther Süss (SUI)	WHEELER - iXS Team	+2:14.1
3.	Sabine Spitz (GER)	Sabine Spitz Pro MTB	+3:31,0
4.	Helen Grobert (GER)	GHOST Factory Racing	+3:55.3
5.	Irina Kalentyeva (RUS)	Möbel Märki MTB Pro Team	+4:20,2
6.	Lisi Osl (AUT)	GHOST Factory Racing	+4:30.3
7.	Corina Gantenbein (SUI)	Haibike Ötztal Pro Team	+5:44,5
8.	Marine Groccia (SUI)	Moutier Team Alouettes.ch	+6:46,3 9
9.	Julie Bresset (FRA)	BH-Sr Suntour-Kmc	+6:55.2
10.	Alessandra Keller (SUI)	Strüby-BiXS Team	+7:45.3
Juniors
1.	Jeremias Bürgin (SUI)	4cycle / Velo + Sport Rast	1:11:34.9
2.	Joel Suter (SUI)	Eiger Sport Interlaken	+0:10.7
3.	Nck Baumann (SUI)	PAMO Racing powered by Specialized	+0:22.6
4.	Jerome Elsasser (SUI)	GREENHOPE biking against cancer	+1:27.8
5.	Hannes Wohlgenannt (AUT)	RV Dornbirn	+1:36.8
6.	Joel Grab (SUI)	GRAB Offroad Cycling Team	+1:59.1
7th	Sven Olivetti (SUI)	FOCUS X-BIONIC TEAM	+2:00,0
8.	Robin Juillerat (SUI)	Team PROF Raiffeisen CCL	+2:13.6
9.	Nico Niemann (SUI)	GREENHOPE biking against cancer	+2:16.9
10.	Robin Spiess (SUI)	Pink Gili Juniors / VC Altstätten	+2:29.3
Junior girls
1.	Nicole Koller (SUI)	Tower Sports - VC Eschenbach	1:02:50.3
2.	Sina Frei (SUI)	JB Felt Team	+3:02,7
3.	Katja Neuner (AUT)	Fischer-BMC	+6:33.9
4.	Hélène Clauzel (FRA)	Vélo Club Sainte Croix en Plaine	+7:27,6
5.	Ramona Kupferschmied (SUI)	WHEELER - iXS Team	+7:39.8
6.	Sonja Guerrini (SUI)	Strüby-BiXS Team	+8:13,8
7.	Vanessa Bandel (SUI)	bskGraf-KOBA MTB Team	+8:25.7
8.	Frances Du Toit (RSA)	Time Freight eTeam	+9:13,3
9.	Simone Vuljaj (AUT)	MTB Racing Team Tirol	+14:07.7
10.	Nadine Stieger (SUI)	Pink Gili Swiss / VC Altstätten	+14:16,2
Amateurs/Masters
1.	Jürg Graf (SUI)	bskGraf-KOBA MTB Team	1:08:11.9
2.	Thomas Schmid (SUI)	Pink Gili Swiss / VC Altstätten	+0:29.9
3.	David Horvath (GER)	Lexware Mountainbike Team	+0:48.0
4.	Remy Dénervaud (SUI)	Team VTT BMC Fribourg	+0:58.0
5.	Robin Gemperle (SUI)	Giant Swiss Team	+1:06.1
6.	Rick Reimann (SUI)	Lenovo-Cube Bikes	+1:11.8
7.	Noah Blöchlinger (SUI)	bischibikes / kopierpapier.ch / RV Altenrhein	+1:19,7
8.	Mathias Alig (SUI)	BiXS - iXS Team	+1:24.4
9.	Alberto Riva (ITA)	Bike o'Clock	+1:25.8
10.	Florian Meyer (SUI)	Stöckli	+2:15,5