First up is Marcel Bartholet. As a Masters rider, he was allowed to start the race with a two-minute lead. "Fabian Giger rode up to me on the third lap. Then I tried to stay with him for as long as possible," said the Radbar Racing Team athlete, explaining his tactics. "Bartholet stayed with me for quite a long time. I had to really step on the gas at the end to shake him off," explains World Cup top rider Fabian Giger appreciatively at the finish. Martin Gujan was tied back by a flat tire, but still managed to finish in third place.

The race for the overall standings is hotting up behind the leaders. "I knew that I simply had to stay close to Boog," said Wildhaber about the starting position and described the decision as follows: "When there was a kick in our group, I saw that Manuel Boog couldn't react, but I could". The 2015 Cup was thus decided in Wildhaber's favor. "It's an honor to take home the leader's jersey. It means you've been the strongest for a whole season." Completing the podium alongside Wildhaber and Boog is Casey South in third place overall.

Baumgartner repeats overall victory
Sonja Guerrini takes her third win in a row. However, because she only has five instead of six races on her results sheet, she falls just short of overall victory. However, she narrowly catches Rahel Signer in third place. Sabrina Baumgartner wins the annual ranking. "I'm very happy to have done it again after 2011. It's a nice end to the season and a great finish to the racing scene," announced the Thurgau native. The assistant doctor wants to devote herself mainly to her career in future.
Mathias Allenspach is the second EKZ Cup veteran to step down. He will also be giving more weight to his job and training in the future, but will remain loyal to VC Eschenbach's youth development program and will therefore also be seen at the EKZ Cup in the future. But more off the track.

Yvonne Halter wins the title "EKZ Cup Rookie of the Year"
The battle for the rookie title also comes to an end at the final in Fischenthal. The two candidates Fabian Hofstetter and Yvonne Halter had been accompanied through the season by cyclo-cross world champion Andy Büsser and the TowerSports team and had received nutrition and training advice from the therapists at Aktivphsyio in addition to his technical tips. They documented their progress with Shimano cameras in several video diaries.
In addition to personal initiative, race preparation, a Facebook challenge and three other points, the riding time in Fischenthal was also a criterion. Halter took the title just ahead of Hofstetter by one point. Her prize is a complete set of bike equipment worth 6,000 francs. Commenting on her victory, she said: "It was a great race and I was really pleased not to be the only one in our family of six who wasn't riding today."

Positive conclusion from the OC
Ernst Schoch, OC boss of the finals, is satisfied: "We did have one bad crash in a junior category, but fortunately the injuries did not turn out to be serious. Apart from that, everything went really well. Many thanks to all the helpers!". OC boss Heinrich Disch also concludes the EKZ Cup season with satisfaction. "We had a similar number of participants as the year before and the events all went off successfully," analyzes the long-time head of the EKZ Cup. Thomas Recher from main sponsor EKZ also draws a positive conclusion: "We are pleased that there are still such large fields in the junior categories. The work with young talent is working, which is the most important thing for the EKZ."

EKZ Cup Magazine on Tele Top and S1
The six-minute EKZ Cup magazines will be broadcast on two channels: Tuesdays at 5.50 pm on Tele Top and Wednesdays at 7.05 pm on S1. In addition, further exciting video and photo reports will be available on the social media channels from Sunday.

www.ekz-cup.ch
www.facebook.com/ekzcup