Sina Frei shook off her fiercest rival, Evie Richards from Great Britain, in round one of five. "It wasn't planned that way. Evie chose a different line in the technical section and mine was faster. Then I was in front and had a small gap," explains Frei. She increased her lead lap by lap and celebrated an unchallenged victory. "I was always on the limit, I noticed the altitude from time to time, but we didn't have the fights now. So it wasn't a problem," explains Frei. It is her fourth win of the season in a row; she only had to give way to her team-mate Malene Degn at the start in Stellenbosch.

Nicole Koller is not coping with the altitude as usual. She finished the race in 16th place (+8:02) as the second best Swiss athlete and seemed very disappointed. Ramona Kupferschmied is delighted with her 20th place (+9:36) after she had a defect in Val di Sole and also previously in Nove Mesto. "Top 20 is great, I'm really happy. I finally got through again without a defect," says Kupferschmied.

And Lara Krähemann can also live with 21st place (+11:08). She lost touch with Kupferschmied in a downhill section. "I also had a little respect for the altitude, but otherwise I'm really happy," she says.

Colombo on the podium

Swiss U23 champion Filippo Colombo rode onto the podium for the second time this season at the World Cup in the Bikepark Vallnord, Andorra. Colombo won the sprint against Romanian Vlad Dascalu 35 seconds behind winner Joshua Dubau (Fra, 1:24:07). Second place went to another Frenchman, Antoine Philippe (+0:18).

The race is characterized by the mountain air. There is a lot of tactics and everyone tries to go at their own pace. That's why Filippo Colombo doesn't go on the attack and when Albstadt winner Joshua Dubau increases the pace on lap two, the Swiss stays with the chasers. Antoine Philippe also rides away from the six-man group. Filippo Colombo takes third position with two laps to go, Vlad Dascalu follows him, but the Romanian falls back into the next group. Going into the final lap, four riders are chasing Filippo Colombo, who is only a few seconds ahead. "I got a bit scared that they would catch me. I wanted to be in front on the long descent because I always felt great on the downhill," explained Colombo.

He managed to do just that. He makes up five seconds on the climb, but the chasers catch up again in the following steep section. However, Colombo stayed ahead of the group and was able to pull away again with Dascalu in the next technical section. There is a sprint between the Romanian and the Ticino rider, which Colombo wins relatively safely. "I played tactically. I knew that some people would explode again today. Third place is great, I'm very satisfied, but I'm not quite at the top yet," said Colombo.

Noah Blöchlinger rides into the top 15 in 14th place (+2:26) for the fourth time this season, confirming his stable form. Despite being hampered at the start after Joel Roth broke his chain. This flushed him far back.
"Even in Val di Sole I was a long way back at the start. But now I know that I can still ride towards the front. I'm very, very happy," says Blöchlinger.

Ramon Lauener is also hampered at the start and in the first half of the race he is more or less together with Blöchlinger and climbs into the top 20 with him. In the end he finishes 17th (+3:06). "In the second half I noticed that we were almost 2000 meters above sea level, so it was difficult to keep up. But I am very satisfied. I topped my best result from Val di Sole," says Lauener.