The top riders went head-to-head on the extremely attractive prologue course, starting at 2122 meters above sea level. The favorite team "Centurion Vaude" with the Austrian Daniel Geismayr and the German Jochen Käss won the race by a narrow margin of 17 seconds, even though Daniel Geismayr had to make a short stop due to a bent pedal. The young Swiss members of the "Scott-Sram MTB Racing Team", Matthias Stirnemann and Andri Frischknecht, finished close behind with an equally strong time of 52.37.00 minutes. Third place went to the Texpa-Simplon team, consisting of the Austrian Christoph Soukup and the Swiss Michael Stünzi.

In the "Swiss Epic Women" category, the "Spur - Wallonie" team won with Switzerland's Ariane Lüthi and Belgium's Alice Pirard, who defended her Belgian marathon title just the Sunday before. Second place went to Switzerland's Esther Süss and Sweden's Jennie Stenerhag, "Team Meerendal CBC". Third place went to the Swiss team "Scott Women - R'adys", with Cornelia Hug and Florence Darbellay.

Flow also for marathon pros

In the Swiss Epic race format "Flow", the "Multitask Industries - Optiek Mertens" team came out on top, and by a clear margin. Michiel Van Aelbroeck's partner is none other than Belgian marathon pro Frans Claes. So it seems that even professionals prefer to have flow at the end of the season rather than compete with their usual colleagues.

Two well-known faces in Switzerland are riding in second place: ski cross riders Alex Fiva and René Wildhaber often train together and form the "Flying Rotor" team at this year's Swiss Epic. But judging by the ten-minute gap between them, even their downhill skills were no match for the fast Belgians. Just behind Fiva and Wildhaber, the "Poli-Bau - Zürich Versicherungen" team with Philipp Imdorf and Roman Rohrer rode to third place.

In the mixed teams, the two Australians John Laughlin and Jodie Willett (Flight Center - Bike Rite) narrowly beat the Belgians Tim Jacobs and Kristien Achten (Perskindol - Vojo Mag). Ludo May and his partner Nancy Pellissier came third

A successful start

The prologue in Grächen is a successful start to the fourth edition of the six-day Perskindol-Swiss-Epic mountain bike race. Organizer Joko Vogel commented: "Everything went smoothly today and the participants were delighted with the course, scenery and ambience. As organizers, we are particularly pleased that this year we have a new record in terms of the number of countries with participants from 30 different nations. This shows the high international status of the Swiss Epic as a stage race."

From Leukerbad to Zermatt

Tomorrow, all teams of two in the "Swiss Epic" and "Swiss Epic Flow" race formats will set off on the first stage, which will take them to Leukerbad, where the second and third stages will also be ridden as a circuit on Wednesday and Thursday. Stage four will take the field to Zermatt on Friday, where there will be another circuit on Saturday. The overall winners in all the different categories of the "Perskindol Swiss Epic" 2017 are then expected in Zermatt on Saturday, September 16, 2017, from 11.00 a.m.

Ranking lists of all formats and categories