The "Roc d'Azur" bike festival in Fréjus in the south of France is traditionally the last major racing event in Europe and an important race for French cross-country riders in particular. It is therefore not surprising that the best riders from the Grande Nation ride for the top places in the main race at practically every edition, but Swiss athletes are also among the front runners every time. This year, however, a Frenchman once again came out on top: U23 rider Victor Koretzky replaces his teammate Stéphane Tempier as defending champion and wins the professional race.

Just under one and a half minutes behind, Nicola Rohrbach makes it onto the podium for the first time in this prestigious race in second place. From the start, Rohrbach rode in a leading group of six riders and after the second steep climb, he rode in a group of three with Koretzky and his compatriot Hugo Drechou. He makes a small but decisive mistake in favor of Victor Koretzky when choosing a line in a running passage. Rohrbach rode on with Drechou behind him, soon shook the latter off and rode the remaining 20 kilometers to the finish alone.

"To be honest, I'm surprised that it went so well for me. Because since the last cross-country race, I'd only been out on my enduro bike," says Rohrbach and then enthuses about the atmosphere at the side of the course: "On the climb to the Col du Bougnon, the spectators were as close as at the Tour de France and numerous Swiss fans also created a great atmosphere."

Hugo Drechou, who was still glued to Rohrbach's rear wheel, falls far behind. His place was taken by Martin Fanger, who completed the podium in third place. He was also able to join the leading group after the start, but had to let the fastest riders go on the descent. Fanger was able to close the gap again on the following climb, but was unable to benefit from his efforts and fell back into the chasing group, where he spent the rest of the race. There, the BMC rider was able to recover well and regain his strength for the final sprint, which he won by half a bike length. "I'm happy to finish the season with a podium finish in pleasant summer temperatures," Fanger said after the race.

Nicola Rohrbach and Martin Fanger round off their season with second and third place.

The third Swiss rider to make it onto the podium at the Roc d'Azur is Filippo Colombo, who finished fifth in the World Championships. He finished his last junior race in second place and will be competing in the U23 category for the first time in the 2016 season.

Filipo Colombo second in his last race in the junior class.

Rohrbach shows enduro ambitions and Leumann goes "foreign"
Three days before the main race, the "Enduroc" has traditionally been held for around ten years. The enduro race in the hills of Roquebrune has five varied downhill stages in store for the participants. Nicola Rohrbach, who got his first taste of enduro racing in Finale Ligure just under a week earlier, will also be taking part. The enduro air certainly seems to suit him well, as the actual cross-country specialist did very well and finished in second place. "There were five cool stages and it went really well. Unfortunately, I made two big riding mistakes that cost me a lot of time. It probably wouldn't have been enough to win without them, because Thomas Lapeyrie, the winner, is also very far ahead in the world series," explains Rohrbach.

Nicola Rohrbach shows his strength in enduro and finishes second behind Thomas Lapeyrie and ahead of downhill veteran Karim Amour.

Katrin Leumann is not competing in a different discipline but in a different category. Instead of competing in the cross-country race on Saturday, the Ghost rider will be competing with her partner in the "mixed doubles" - i.e. the tandem race. This fun racing excursion earned the pair third place.

Katrin Leumann has a good laugh in the tandem race

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