Perhaps we should start with two sentences from Florian Vogel. "I've never experienced anything like this in my entire career and I've also ridden cross in Belgium," he says to the audience. And to the number one protagonist: "What Nino has achieved here is incredible." The Grisons native and long-time team-mate of Vogel immediately puts his stamp on his home World Championships. "Nino is the boss," says the coach of one of his competitors. He quickly tears a gap and pushes the pace, also to really hurt certain co-favorites right away.

He goes into the second round alone, but it seems as if he is still looking for a rival. When he sees that the South Tyrolean Gerhard Kerschbaumer is getting closer on the asphalt climb, he lets the Andorra winner close the ten-second gap. "I would have gone for a sprint against him. But when Mathieu van der Poel came closer, I knew I had to work. I wouldn't have liked to have had him with me." The Schurter-Kerschbaumer duo dictated the action at the front until the penultimate lap.

Mathieu van der Poel attacks from the chasing group on the fourth lap. He halved his 25-second deficit, but as Schurter said: they didn't want him at the front and accelerated again. So it comes down to a duel between Schurter and Kerschbaumer. As already seen in Val di Sole (winner Schurter) and in Andorra (winner Kerschbaumer). "I was already preparing for a sprint with Gerhard," says Schurter, "but then he struggled briefly in a technical section and a gap opened up." Then it was all about moving forward.

The gap, according to Kerschbaumer, came about because he clicked off the pedals once. "Until the sixth lap, I didn't notice that he was stronger, but then I realized that he was at least as strong as me on the climbs and faster in some parts," admits Kerschbaumer. "But Nino is just Nino."

Schurter goes into the final lap with a five-second lead. The gap grows, but the Swiss rider can only really feel safe on the last kilometer. On the home straight, he takes a well-deserved dip in the crowd and, overjoyed, lets the red and white slope do the wave three times at the finish.
"It's great, I've never experienced an atmosphere like this before, the people were crazy. I couldn't hear my coaches anymore," commented Schurter. Victory at the home world championships comes right after Olympic gold.

Florian Vogel fights in the chasing group, loses the connection at one point, comes back and finally sprints for fourth place with Henrique Avancini. The Brazilian won the duel, but Vogel spoke of the "best race of his career". He points to the high level of performance. "I was one of the first to start measuring performance. And when I look at the figures from the last three years, I'm better. The level has risen brutally again."

Mathias Flückiger finishes sixth. Previously, he had opened up a gap to the rest of the chasers with Avancini and had a fierce duel with the South American. "I rode in his way twice," said Flückiger, who apologized to Avancini at the finish. "I'm happy with my race, I gave it my all. It's a shame that I missed Mathieu's attack."

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