The Swiss relay team is not in the front regions until the final rider, Nino Schurter. Starting rider Andri Frischknecht got everything out of himself, but only finished in tenth position against several elite riders. "I went right over the limit and tore myself apart for the team until the last second," explains Frischknecht, who was so exhausted that he even threw up minutes later.

Junior Filippo Colombo rode within his capabilities and made up time on the stronger German Luca Schwarzbauer. Jolanda Neff still takes over in tenth position, but as she is up against many other women, she is able to improve to sixth place.

However, the gap to the French riders is already over half a minute and when Neff hands over to Nino Schurter, he is 50 seconds behind. That is a gap that is impossible to make up against a world-class rider like Maxime Marotte. "At some point I got the information that I was still 40 seconds behind. That demotivated me pretty quickly. You can maybe make up ten or 15 seconds against an elite rider, but not 50," explains Schurter.

As he enters the final climb, he suddenly notices that Jaroslav Kulhavy is not far away. The Czech pulled him off right there at the World Cup final last year. Schurter laughs. "I thought, no, that can't be right." The man from Chur gives it another go and secures the silver medal for his team, 45 seconds behind France. Kulhavy finished ten seconds behind in third place. "It was already clear beforehand that it would be almost impossible to beat the French. They are at the top in all positions. We can be very happy with silver. It's especially cool because we had such a young team at the start," summarized Schurter.

Jolanda Neff has brief problems on her lap because the Swede Kajsa Snihs prevents her from overtaking by changing lines, but she is happy with the rest. "It's only my third relay and it's always difficult to judge performance. But I'm happy about my first team medal," says Neff. She produces a time two seconds slower than France's Pauline Ferrand Prevot, who will be her big rival for the U23 world title on Friday.

Junior Colombo found it "a tough test", but is happy to stand on the podium together with his teammates.