It's an open battle between Swiss champion Urs Huber and Swiss Epic winner Lukas Buchli. After the long flat section through Euthal, at kilometer 62, there is still a three-man lead with Huber, Buchli and the Frenchman Thomas Dietsch. On the climb to Adlerhorst, Buchli tries to break away by increasing his pace. Dietsch was no longer able to keep up the pace and had to let his two rivals go.

In the short running section to the Spirstock, it is Huber who runs the faster pace and thus brings about a preliminary decision, as it turns out shortly afterwards. Buchli took too many risks on the demanding descent in the pursuit. The result is a burst front tire in a bend of all places. Buchli slips off the front wheel and crashes. Soon afterwards, Dietsch also comes up behind and overtakes the Grisons rider.Huber, meanwhile, continuously extended his lead alone at the front and reached the finish line over three minutes ahead of Dietsch. "When I realized that Buchli was no longer coming, I slowed down and took the risk," says Huber, explaining his tactics to secure the win. After his fifth place at the Swiss Epic, this triumph is a great satisfaction.
After his successes in 2007, 2008 and 2009, this is already the fourth overall victory in the iXS Classic for the man from Jonen in the canton of Aargau. Huber will now ride the marathon in Ornans (FRA), which he has already won three times. This will be followed by the season finale at the Roc d'Azur in Frèjus in the south of France.Thomas Dietsch is delighted. Because in 200, like Bulls team-mate Huber, he rode into Einsiedeln as the final and overall winner of the Swiss marathon race series. Now 39 years old, he reached the finish line in second place on his farewell tour.
Last year's winner Lukas Buchli takes his "defeat" in his stride: "After my crash, the air was naturally out. I had to re-motivate myself to at least finish in third place.
Sometimes it's like being jinxed. At the Swiss Epic, I rode the roughest descents for a week without a puncture on the same tire that I had a flat today." Buchli was not spoiled by luck in the other races of the iXS Classic either. "I had a flat tire in three races while riding at the front, but that's the way the sport is," says Buchli.

Sweet unchallenged
The women's race ends as expected. Esther Süss pulls away early and realizes a start-finish victory. After 2005, 2007 and 2009, the Swiss champion in the mountain bike marathon rides into the Einsiedeln monastery square as the winner for the fourth time.

IXS leader Milena Landtwing remains in second place ahead of Nadja Walker from Uri. This gives Landtwing her first overall victory in the iXS Classic. "I actually only wanted to ride as far as Willerzell, but I got quite far," jokes Landtwing. The overall victory at the Swiss Epic, which she contested together with team colleague Bärti Bucher, took its toll. After Willerzell, however, things went better and better. The beautiful weather played its part, says last year's winner. Third place went to Nadja Walker, who rode to victory in Einsiedeln in 2011.

Exciting duels in the other categories
The exciting duel on the long distance in the fun riders ends in favor of iXS Classic leader Andreas Siegrist. In the duel in the open category, the 34-year-old from Sachseln reached the finish line in second place behind Sascha Wälti. This was enough for Siegrist to relegate his toughest rival Norbert Amgarten, who finished fifth, to second place in the overall standings. Hans-Jürg Gerber finished third in the iXS Classic classification.

In the middle distance, there will be a repeat of the duel between oldie Urs Baumann and young local Silvan Kälin. While Kälin came out on top last year, this time Baumann will once again be wearing the jersey of the best iXS Classic rider.

In the women's race, iXS Classic leader Sue Tanner battled it out in a sprint finish with Alessia Nay. Tanner loses by a narrow margin, but keeps the leader's jersey, which she is very happy about. However, Nay and Tanner reach the finish almost 24 minutes after the leading riders Ramona Forchini and Andrea Waldis have sprinted for victory. Eliminator specialist Forchini retains the upper hand, as she did last year.

The honorary starter is car racing driver Marcel Fässler, who is taking on the middle distance himself. He finished the race in 76th place out of 525 starters, within his target of staying under four hours. With a time of 3:59.51 hours, he achieves this pretty much exactly. There is also a TV report on Sportpanorama, where Fässler is also a studio guest.

Car racing driver Marcel Fässler enjoys his sporting diversion. ©Martin Platter

Fässler's appearance in the Sportpanorama begins at minute 17.11, his detour into mountain biking follows from minute 27.20.
Sportpanorama from September 28, 2014

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