Since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, all sporting events have had to be canceled. This also affected the Urban Bike Festival and the spectacular "Urban Cyclocross" implemented in the festival. Instead of moping around, the festival organizers around OC President Erwin Flury have shown a great spirit of innovation and have ensured in recent weeks that the Urban Bike Festival will be able to flutter into your living room as a digital event on 16 and 17 May.

The "EKZ Cyclocross Challenge" has been developed as a new, extremely attractive and visually effective discipline. It will combine a sporting challenge and show all in one. "It is a new platform for the sport and the athletes. It will be a demonstration of the diversity of cyclo-cross sport and offer the athletes an extremely important presence in this non-competitive period," says Christian Rocha, organizer of the EKZ CrossTour, about the aims of the newly conceived cyclo-cross format.

Frei, Forster, Kuhn and co provide the desired line-up

The inquiries to eight selected Swiss athletes were all answered positively and with great enthusiasm. The "EKZ Cyclocross Challenge", in which four teams of two compete against each other, has the absolute dream line-up. U23 vice world champion Kevin Kuhn will be at the start together with Nicole Koller. Swiss cyclo-cross champion Lars Forster and U23 MTB world champion Sina Frei form a powerful duo. While siblings Timon and Noemi Rüegg are relying on family power, Lukas Flückiger and Zina Barhoumi want to prove that the Bernese are anything but slow.

"Finally putting a date in the agenda again"

Lars Forster, the reigning Swiss champion, is looking forward to the new event: "I can finally put a date in my diary again. It's a great concept that represents a new challenge for me. It's also important for us athletes to have media presence again and content that we can report on ourselves."

Four teams, four challenges

The "EKZ Cyclocross Challenge" consists of four different stages and four completely different challenges. Technique, bike control, balance, speed, explosiveness, daring and a bit of luck will be required. The individual challenges will incorporate elements of the original Urban Cyclocross. For example, the teams will be battling against the clock in the stair challenge. While a long jump challenge in the sand stage will be a cyclocross world premiere, the athletes will fight against falling into the cool water in the water challenge. There are ranking points to be won by the teams in each challenge. The team with the lowest number of points starts with the best starting position for the final and all-important challenge. The final relay format through an urban cyclocross course pits man against man or woman against woman.

Although it is not a competition in the conventional sense, the "EKZ Cyclocross Challenge" promises plenty of athleticism, speed, excitement and spectacle for spectators at home on the sofa.

www.ekz-crosstour.ch/ekz-cyclocross-challenge-bringt-radquer-live-nach-hause