At 8.00 am, the first riders set off in the direction of Zermatt. We start with a first ascent of around 350 meters in altitude, which takes us into an already familiar descent. The morning light is sparse in the dense forest and we are almost flying blind with our heavily tinted glasses. But the trail is too much fun for us to stop. We don't even notice much of the rain, the trails are already dry or frozen in places.

Once we arrive in Leuk, we take the trail along the Rhone, but this time in the opposite direction: after all, we want to get back to the Mattertal. For us flow riders, a train transport is planned from Raron, but we have to fight our way there, the twelve-kilometre stretch is a tough one. Although we have agreed with a men's team to slipstream each other on the flat, we have left them too far behind on the downhill and still have to tackle the flat alone. Alone is a good word, because Caro doesn't even make an attempt to take the lead from me.

Photo ©Apix - Alex Buschor

A brisk sole before departure

As we turn into Raron, our feet are freezing and we can hardly feel our calves thanks to the cold. Fortunately, we first take the cable car to Unterbäch before riding the chairlift to Brandalp. Once at the top, we first have to do a warm-up dance.

We start with a short, beautiful forest downhill, and further down we meet up with the Epic riders again. The climb over Bürchen and Törbel drags on for a while, and we are caught up in impressive fashion by Ariane Lüthi and her partner, the two ladies have a lot of pressure on their pedals. We didn't see them for long, although we were both feeling pretty good today.

Reunion with the most famous Matter

The shuttle is waiting in Stalden to take us to Täsch. For once, we can take our time on the ascent to Zermatt, as it is neutralized. When we soon catch sight of the "Horu", we can't help but take a quick photo - we've been looking forward to seeing the Matterhorn all week.

The last descent of the day starts on Sunnegga, in the midst of Japanese tourists, we head down into the valley at breakneck speed. You have to be careful, as there are plenty of the notorious cross-cuts on this descent. But we make it into Zermatt without incident and are pleased that there is still some time left of the afternoon to spend in the beautiful resort.

Tomorrow we start the last stage, which has the longest climb of the week in store for us with over 1000 meters of altitude in one go.