The 30th bike festival, the "Roc d'Azur", lasts four days on the Côte d'Azur. As every year, the prestigious cross-country race marks the end of this season-ending event. Martinez has prepared specifically for this race, according to many. Quite possibly, because a victory at the Roc d'Azur counts almost more for a Frenchman than a World Cup win.

After around a third of the 56-kilometre race, a leading group breaks away with last year's winner Stephane Tempier (FRA), the German cross-country and marathon champions Moritz Milatz and Robert Mennen as well as the former World Cup dominator from France Miguel Martinez. Mennen was soon unable to keep up the pace and fell back into the chasing group.

The leading trio had a lead of around a minute on the chasing group before Tempier dropped out and the trio became a duo. Milatz and Martinez couldn't get rid of each other and so it came down to a sprint decision. This goes to the former Olympic champion after a seemingly unfair sprint. Milatz, who is ideally faster than Martinez in the sprint, is therefore very disappointed with Martinez's behavior, but has to settle for second place despite his anger.

Behind Milatz, reigning Olympic champion Jaroslav Kulhavy (CZE) rode to third place. The latter rode up to Robert Mennen and Hannes Genze (GER) and soon after dropped back. Later, Christoph Sauser also catches up with the two Germans. In the sprint, Sauser is then beaten by Genze and finishes the race in fifth place. Urs Huber finishes in ninth place.
The reigning U23 Swiss champion Reto Indergand wins the category classification in twelfth place.

Leumann as tandem rider
In the women's race, which takes place on Saturday, the Austrian Lisi Osl wins in a close decision. She and Blaza Klemencic from Slovenia pulled away early on. However, the Slovenian often loses Osl's rear wheel on the climbs and is forced to close the gaps on the flat sections. This costs her energy and the Austrian soon rides alone. Before the last third of the course, the Czech Tereza Hurikova, who was making strong progress, caught up with Osl. The duo stayed together until the home straight, where Osl was able to muster more reserves in the sprint and thus won the race.

Fabienne Niederberger was the best Swiss skier in the field in seventh place. Katrin Leumann, on the other hand, decided not to take part in the cross-country race and completed the 56-kilometer lap together with Markus Bless on the tandem. Out of around 200 tandem teams, the pair of Leumann/Bless finished the race in fifth place overall and second in the mixed category. Completing such a distance is a respectable achievement for all tandem participants. A tandem is not exactly the vehicle of choice on the 56-kilometer route, which is quite rough in places and includes many single trails, steps and tight bends - or, as you can see, it is. After all, record World Cup winner Julien Absalon (FRA) and his wife have already completed this race several times on a tandem.

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