The Swiss also play the leading role in the sixth of seven races in the Cross-Country World Cup. A somewhat unequal duel is developing between three Swiss riders and a Frenchman, all of whom are chasing podiums on Swiss bikes. The Flückiger brothers and Nino Schurter are up against record World Cup winner Julien Absalon and the Australian Daniel McConnell only gets involved in this neighborly duel in the sixth of seven laps. Curiously, it is a BMC teammate of Julien Absalon, Lukas Flückiger, who tears the gap with a furious downhill on the third lap, which the Frenchman is unable to close until the end. "If it had only been about downhill, then Lukas would have won today," says Schurter later with a laugh. "He was kamikaze fast downhill."

Lukas Flückiger is the first to start the eight-minute downhill towards the finish and Schurter hangs on to his rear wheel. At the bottom, the Swiss duo emerge with a lead of around ten seconds. Absalon was never able to close this gap completely, even though he was able to get back to within five seconds of Schurter later on. "From the team's point of view, it was perhaps stupid of me to attack. But Julien always lost ten or fifteen seconds on the downhill because he was on a hardtail," explains Lukas Flückiger. "But I didn't want to blame myself for not trying." His attack ultimately failed because he was "not too slow, but too lame" on the climb.

He lost touch with Schurter, who from then on fought alone at the front, but was never able to close the gap decisively until the end. "That was a tough fight. I tried never to overdo it up the mountain. The fact that I can win here on a course where Absalon actually has his strengths makes the victory special," commented Nino Schurter on his 13th World Cup victory, which brings him level with Christoph Sauser.

Flückigers with a strong finish
Lukas Flückiger is able to fend off the attack from Daniel McConnell on the last lap, who closes the gap to Flückiger with his famously strong final phase. However, the Swiss rider proves to be tactically smarter and manages to get into the downhill ahead of McConnell, where - as Schurter mentioned - he leaves his rival no chance.

Mathias Flückiger had to capitulate completely on the sixth lap after repeatedly closing the gap to Schurter behind Absalon. "That went well for three laps, but then I couldn't do it anymore. In the end, I'm happy with the podium place. If someone had said to me before I left for Canada: two podiums, I would have taken it straight away," explains Mathias Flückiger, referring to the weeks of breathing problems that hampered him in training. Towards the end of the race, he still had to fight not to be caught by the German Manuel Fumic, who ended up in sixth place.

Florian Vogel (Rapperswil-Jona) was the fourth best Swiss rider in ninth place. He had the misfortune of being held up at the start by a crash involving Olympic champion Jaroslav Kulhavy. Or luck, as he says in his statement. "That forced me to start slowly, which I had planned to do anyway. I don't cope so well with the heat. That's why I'm very happy with my race," says Vogel, who slowly worked his way up from 18th place.

Ralph Näf and Fabian Giger are the Swiss number five and six in the top eleven. Both also had problems at the start and had to roll up the field from the middle. "It may not have been a super perfect day for me, but it was okay, my best result this year," said Näf.www.redbull.com/bike
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Rankings World Cup #6 Windham/USA, men:
1. Nino Schurter (SUI)	1.40.58	+0.00
2. Julien Absalon (FRA)	1.41.04	+0.06
3rd Lukas Flückiger (SUI)	1.41.14	+0.16
4th Daniel McConnell (AUS)	1.41.20	+0.22
5th Mathias Flückiger (SUI)	1.42.10	+1.12
6th Manuel Fumic (GER)	1.42.25	+1.27
7th Sergio Manceton (ESP)	1.43.02	+2.04
8th Stéphane Tempier (FRA)	1.43.25	+2.27
9th Florian Vogel (SUI)	1.43.38	+2.40
10th Ralph Näf (SUI)	1.44.14	+3.16
11th Fabian Giger (SUI)	1.44.38	+3.40
21st Matthias Stirnemann (SUI)	1.46.21	+5.23
26th Martin Gujan (SUI)	1.47.57	+6.59
29th Marc Stutzmann (SUI)	1.45.10	+4.12
39th Thomas Litscher (SUI)	1.49.42	+8.44
41st Nicola Rohrbach (SUI)	1.50.19	+9.21
49th Marcel Wildhaber (SUI)	1.51.39	+10.41
51st Sepp Freiburghaus (SUI)	1.52.20	+11.22