The fourth stage of the six-day Perskindol Swiss Epic mountain bike race is a 74-kilometre circuit from Grächen back to Grächen. With 3,333 meters of altitude difference, this is the biggest difference in altitude of the entire race, but it is also the queen stage in the name of flow. Lukas Buchli and Mathias Flückiger fail to defend the leader's jersey on this trail-rich stage. The duo were already involved in an incident on the first descent.

Florian Vogel gets his front wheel caught on a stone at the end of the first descent, crashes heavily and is then unable to continue the race. At first there was a suspicion of a wrist fracture, which fortunately was not the case. "Fortunately, my wrist is not broken. It's just badly sprained. Biking is definitely out of the question for the next few days," says Florian Vogel about the consequences of his crash.This crash also has initial consequences for the Flückiger/Buchli duo. Mathias Flückiger tries to secure the rock. Meanwhile, their fiercest rivals Geismayr and Käss escape them. Flückiger and Buchli now try to close the gap again, but are unsuccessful. Flückiger's brake lever breaks off in a crash. In the end, the duo lack a good minute to defend the leader's jersey. This is now worn by the German-Austrian duo Käss and Geismayr. The final stage from Grächen to Zermatt is therefore likely to be a showdown, as Mathias Flückiger and Lukas Buchli will leave no stone unturned to reclaim the leader's jersey and thus overall victory.Ralph Näf and Lukas Flückiger finished in third place, also taking third place in the overall classification. Christoph Sauser and Jaroslav Kulhavy started the Perskindol Swiss Epic with great ambitions. However, they have never been able to match their top performances. On the first descent of the fourth stage, they both suffered a puncture. Some time later, the two abandoned the race, apparently due to knee problems.

Unique race for Langvad and Kleinhans
Four stages, four victories so far for Ariane Kleinhans and Annika Langvad at the Perskindol-Swiss-Epic. This means that the Swiss-Danish duo already have almost an hour's lead over Esther Süss and Hielke Elferink (NED), who finished second on the day. Andrea Kuster and her Norwegian team partner Kristin Aamodt finished third in the stage and in the overall classification.

The mixed duo Bärti Bucher and Milena Landtwing also start the final stage with a comfortable lead of around 30 minutes. They win the fourth stage with a seven-minute lead over the US team of Michael Broderick and Mary McConneloug.

In the flow version, Marco Toniolo and Andy Benz win for the first time. They relegated the overall leaders Florian Golay and Phil Meier to second place and Benno Sprecher and Roni Amstutz to third. Monika Büchi and Simon Ruchti also won in the mixed category.

The fifth and final stage rides over 59 kilometers and 2,400 vertical meters from Grächen to Zermatt. It has a few more tough climbs and descents in store before the participants can call themselves proud Swiss Epic finishers.

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