After her third place at the Seiss Enduro Series in Laax the previous weekend, French rider Melanie Pugin turned up the heat in Lenzerheide. She starts the third race of the series with a stage win, followed by Swiss riders Ysaline van Kampen and Delia da Mocogno. The Heimberg stage also goes in Pugin's favor, but behind her, Great Britain's Katy Winton improves to third place with the second-best time.

Until then, Carolin Gehrig was still in fifth place, but the times were always close together. With the second-best time on "Great White" behind the leading Frenchwoman, Gehrig catapulted herself directly into second place ahead of van Kampen. Anita Gehrig was lurking just behind in fourth place, while da Mocogno appeared to be in a promising sixth position going into the final stage, the Straight Line, where most of the Downhill World Cup was also held.

Here, however, the standings turned once again: Carolin Gehrig went over her handlebars shortly after the start and left the race on the spot with a broken helmet - fortunately, she did not suffer any injuries, as it turned out a little later. Instead, da Mocogno makes the last descent her own. With her best time, she makes a big leap forward and finishes in second place ahead of Ysaline van Kampen. Melanie Pugin, on the other hand, is out of her reach. The Frenchwoman wins by a good 40 seconds. Anita Gehrig, who had been in fourth place, missed the podium by just under two seconds in the end.

Bratschi almost like Pugin

In the men's race, Tim Bratschi almost matches his French colleague Melanie Pugin and builds up a cushion of eleven seconds on the first stage, the Proschieri mountain trail. However, Finland's Tarmo Ryynänen also attracts attention there with second place, closely followed by Italy's Mirco Vendemmia.

On the Heimberg stage, Bratschi wins again, this time ahead of Vendemmia and Patrick Lüthi. The Frenchman repeats this performance on the third downhill and is in fourth place before the final stage, within reach of the podium. Only Vendemmia and Bratschi are 0.8 and 1.92 seconds faster on the Great White stage.

As in the women's race, the straight line also provides excitement and change in the men's race. Like Pugin, Tim Bratschi was unable to ride to another stage win, but he was beaten by several riders on this stage. Mirco Vendemmia also has to admit defeat - without a fight. He plunged into the final descent 17 seconds behind, but a puncture prevented what he thought would be a podium finish. He rattles to the finish on the rim with a flat tire - 28th place for the Italian.

The Finn secures second place with the third-best time, Patrick Lüthi takes third place. The stage win went to Myles Weber, who improved to sixth place, 1.7 seconds ahead of his team colleague Lutz Weber, who improved to seventh place. Reigning Swiss champion Basil Weber, on the other hand, has a bad day. Chain failure on stage one, a fifth place on stage two and another chain failure on stage three spoiled a better result for him. With his rear derailleur and chain dismantled, Weber literally starts the final stage without any drive and makes people sit up and take notice with the fourth-best time. It is a small satisfaction for him that he only manages 20th place overall.

Full results

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