For Anita and me, the day starts with the gondola ride from Verbier up to La Ruinette where the start for the participants of the Perskindol Flow Epic takes place - mass start, of course. Anita remembers the mass start downhill marathons, of which she has already competed in several. We don't have time to ponder for long. The starting shot is fired and we speed along the flat gravel road towards Croix de Coeur, after which the downhill pass begins. At the Croix we meet up with the participants of the Swiss Epic marathon route, so we share the trail down into the valley. Will that work together? Most flow riders want to get down to the checkpoint as quickly as possible, while the Epic riders tend to ride downhill more passively and with a focus on recovery.

As I enter the first trail, I'm already looking for the first loopholes to overtake riders. Anita is riding a few meters behind me at this point - but not for long. She whistles past me and everyone else like a runaway horse. "Oops, I'm going to have to hurry more than I planned." I have to say up front that Anita rides rather cautiously in training and I often wonder why she is still so good in the Enduro World Series. Well, the magic word is "start number". Once she's in race mode, it's not just the knot that opens, but also the brakes. So much so that I had to seriously hurry in between to keep up with her. At least in the knowledge that she knows what she's doing.

The "duel"
starts on the uphill section The rush of speed ends in the counter-climb. It doesn't last very long either, as the flow mixed leaders, Tanja and Nicolas from the "Lucky Star Sargans" team, ride past us with ease. We ride within our capabilities and let them go. Anita really surprises me on the uphills. She rides uphill at a remarkable pace.
On the following descent, we can only play to our strengths to a limited extent, as there are often traffic jams on the narrow trails. We have to accept that these descents demand full concentration from some riders and that it's simply not possible to take evasive action to let us pass. Nevertheless, we reach the bottom of the valley and soon afterwards the checkpoint at the same time as the leading mixed duo. It's time to recover, eat and load the bikes onto the shuttle buses. We are then taken to the next starting point in Lens.

Good mood on the shuttle bus. No wonder with the cool trails.

On the second, scored section, the teams start individually. This is much more convenient for us and the upcoming trails would also be quite sensitive to traffic jams. But above all, they are - excuse my choice of words - awesome to ride. First-class mountain bike trails with a good mix of technical riding and flow: fantastic! However, this section with its numerous counter-climbs and partly rooted Suonen trails is very energy-sapping. Of course, we don't want to complain: we take it a little slower and enjoy the narrow paths along the historic watercourses.

Once again, we hop on the shuttle and ride to Leukerbad. But where the marathon riders have deservedly called it a day, we flow riders head up again - well, at least as far as the Rinderhütte. From there, our last section starts on the flow trail completed this summer by Velosolutions. We are almost all freezing at the top while we wait for the start, because there is a really cold wind blowing around our ears. When the time finally comes, the cold disappears with the first bends. The flow trail from the cattle hut is awesome. All the bends are great and we really get into the swing of things. The mountain bike rollercoaster comes to an end just as Anita and I start to go into flow overdose - or flow'erdose. Natural terrain awaits us with roots, rocks and natural elements to jump over. For us, the perfect contrast program and welcome compensation to the flow trail, even if the cow pats often fly around our ears. Eww, but the other riders won't be able to avoid it either.

Cold fingers before the final descent

The trail fun ends just before the spa town of Leukerbad and a short counter-climb awaits us to the finish - my legs are burning and Anita almost leaves me behind at the finish. Yeah, we made it through the day without any technical or other problems and had a lot of fun in the process. To our further delight, we also get to wear the leader's jersey. This means that we'll be taking it easy on our Zimtstern jerseys on the second stage, which starts and finishes in Leukerbad. We probably won't be able to take it easy on ourselves, because a cool battle has begun with Tanja and Nicolas and the second stage should clearly suit them better. So the tension remains high and we still have a few tough days ahead of us.