Jolanda Neff is in the lead at the start of the race, but the consequences of the shoulder injury from training hinder Neff so much that she drops back and then abandons the race in consultation with national coach Edi Telser. From then on, Linda Indergand represents the Swiss in the battle for the medals. However, she is no longer able to keep up with Yana Belomoina's pace on the uphill of the second lap. Instead, former world champion Pauline Ferrand Prevot from France came from behind and moved into silver place thanks to a mistake by Indergand. "I didn't want to close the gap at full speed," explains Indergand.

From then on, the gaps between the positions widened and at the start of the last lap the classification seemed to be cemented. But Pauline Ferrand Prevot was the unlucky rider of the day. She suffered a front wheel defect, which even caused her to crash on a flat section. That wouldn't be the problem, but without air in the front tire, the lead over Indergand, which was already over a minute, is quickly gone. So Indergand effectively inherits the silver medal.

"It's always great to be on the podium, the medal means a lot to me. I really liked the course, but it was very tough in the heat. I had respect for the first climb because I knew from the team relay that you can't recover at all at the top. Now I can look optimistically towards the World Cup in Canada," commented Indergand on her first elite cross-country medal, which she finished 3:26 minutes behind Belomoina (1:24:35).

Corina Gantenbein rides her way forward after a less successful start. She even overtakes the German Sabine Spitz, but then has to give up fifth place again. "You had to manage the race really well, otherwise you made far too many mistakes in the technical sections at the top," explains Gantenbein. "In any case, I'm super happy, that's a significant improvement on last year." Because she also rode past Pauline Ferrand Prevot, she finished fifth, 5:32 minutes behind.

Kathrin Stirnemann finishes ninth. She settled into fifth place after one lap, but was then unable to keep up on the climb. On the last lap, she was overtaken by Anne Terpstra from the Netherlands and Tanja Zakelj and finished the race in ninth place (+6:32).