Patrick Lüthi is one of the title favorites after his World Cup podium finish in the Eliminator in Albstadt. However, his ambitions for the champion's jersey crumbled in the semi-final when he was sprinted out of the race by Litscher and Fanger. In the second semi-final round, defending champion Marcel Wildhaber and the surprising Matthias Allenspach sprinted their way into the final.

In the grand final, it is Fanger who gets out of the starting blocks the fastest. Wildhaber drops out of the decision due to a chain break and finishes fourth. The three-way battle turned into a duel when Litscher crashed in the last bend before the finish and had to make do with third place. Fanger was able to use the momentum he had gained to secure the Swiss championship title. "I knew that I would have to risk a lot in the final. So I went full throttle down the stairs." For Allenspach, who has a workload of 100 percent, winning the silver medal comes as a surprise, but adds: "I really liked the course and it suited me with the many bends and the pump track."

Stirnemann sprints to the coveted title
In the women's eliminator race, sprint specialist Kathrin Stirnemann gets her long-awaited title. Although the strongest sprinter on paper, the victory is by no means a foregone conclusion for the soon-to-be 25-year-old. "I only came back from altitude training today and didn't know how I would cope with the whole thing," explains Stirnemann. However, she is getting better from run to run.

In the final with Jolanda Neff, Linda Indergand and Ramona Forchini, Stirnemann immediately took the lead. The European Eliminator champion's tactics worked and she took the long-awaited Swiss title just ahead of Neff and Indergand. "I thought it was going to be tight when Jolanda and Linda were pushing out of my slipstream. So it's all the nicer that it finally worked out. This title was still missing from my palmares," said a delighted Stirnemann.