The most curious defect was probably suffered by Thomas Spichtig: The Schaffhausen native, who switched from the Swiss Rocky Mountain team to Stöckli for this season and thus once again underlined his focus on marathons, fell victim to the defect devil at the stupidest moment: After he had first thinned out the front with speed forces and then broke away solo, his rear axle broke. This forced Spichtig to retire ? at least he should have saved energy for the World Championship next weekend.

Späth's race to catch up after a broken chain
But Spichtig was far from the only unlucky rider: Sandro Späth was confidently holding on to the lead group when his chain broke. As he didn't have a riveter himself, he had no choice but to wait for the fastest of his teammates. Späth dropped back to around twentieth place by the time his teammate was able to help him out with the aforementioned tool and the drivetrain was repaired. Späth then proved that his form was right to make life difficult for the Phonak duo Tschopp and Moos with his race to catch up, which took him to seventh place in the daily classification and fifth place in the men's elite. Here, too, the main rehearsal for the World Championships was a failure, but the form seems to be right.

Henzi: on the podium despite a puncture
In the women's race, Andrea Huser's lead at the finish was half an eternity: over 17 minutes separated her from second-placed Daniela Louis and more than 18 minutes from Petra Henzi. The latter was able to keep up with Huser's pace at the start - but only until the first long, very rocky descent. Then the puncture devil struck and forced Petra Henzi to repair the flat tire on her front wheel herself. Petra Henzi then set off on an impressive chase, overtaking rider after rider and finishing in third place. Other flat tire victims were the two marathon specialists Pascal Cattin and Daniel Paradis, while the reigning marathon world champion Thomas Frischknecht won the team classification at the "Swisspower Gigathlon" with the Swisspower team this weekend.

In conclusion, it must be said that the length of the course did not quite correspond to what is considered a bike marathon: the UCI requires a winning time of no less than four and a quarter hours. However, Johann Tschopp was the fastest to complete the 72 kilometers and 2800 meters of elevation gain in just three hours and forty minutes. Incidentally, the picture of the award ceremony shows Tschopp at the top of the podium, between Christof Bischof and Christian Heule ? so it would appear that the Espoirs champion has also been crowned the official Swiss champion. After all, the UCI does not provide for separate classification of the U23 riders in marathons.