The starting signal for the first stage is given in Verbier at 07:30. While temperatures are still cool, the athletes make their way up to the highest point, the Croix de Coeur, followed by a technical, but sometimes rapid descent. After reaching the valley floor, there are several ascents with intermediate descents and kilometers of Suonen trails up to Leukerbad. Lukas Buchli and Mathias Flückiger prove to have the freshest legs. They were able to bring their one-minute lead to the finish on the last steep ramps, which only a few participants were able to ride up.

Behind the winners, the duo of Christoph Sauser and Jaroslav Kulhavy ride to second place - another minute behind third-placed Daniel Geismayr and Jochen Käss. The prologue winners Schurter and Vogel take fifth place and lose the leader's jersey to the victorious Buchli and Flückiger.

Ariane Kleinhans and marathon world champion Annika Langvad are unbeaten once again. However, their victory was by no means a foregone conclusion. Together with Esther Süss and Hielke Elferink in the lead, they suffer a puncture and lose touch with the leaders. However, Kleinhans suffered a puncture on her changer only a short time later, which she was able to fix in time with the help of other riders. Meanwhile, the duo Süss/Elferink catch up again and the race for the day's victory starts all over again. Despite this, Kleinhans and Langvad pulled away again and won the race by a large margin. In the overall classification, the two are now 20 minutes ahead of Süss and Elferink.

Flow Epic without surprises
As in the prologue, Florian Golay and Phil Meier are also the fastest on the first stage. After just under three hours and 20 minutes, the two bike store owners beat the team led by MTB Mag journalist Marco Toniolo by just under eight minutes.

In the mixed category, there was no change in the classification. Once again, Simon Ruchti and Monika Büchi were the winners. As on the previous day, the places of honor went to Eva and Marco Carrer and René Wildhaber and Katja Rupf.

The third day of the Epic promises to be another tough one for the participants. Around 70 kilometers and 2,700 meters of elevation gain will once again drain all the energy out of the Swiss Epic bikers.