Kaiser weather, a tough climb and a great and varied descent through the Verbier Bike Park gave the first Swiss Epic event a worthy start with the prologue. The two-man teams of the Flow Epic and then the Swiss Epic set off from the well-attended Race Village in Verbier for the first "warm-up". The two cross-country rockets Nino Schurter and Florian Vogel are the fastest. As the last team to start, the two remain within striking distance of the fastest riders. In the downhill, the Schurter/Vogel duo let it run its course so that they were able to catch Lukas Buchli and Mathias Flückiger, who had been in the lead until then. Jochen Käss from Germany and Daniel Geissmayr from Austria follow in third place.

As expected, the Danish-Swiss duo of Annika Langvad and Ariane Kleinhans are the fastest in the women's category. Esther Süss and Hielke Elferink (NED) followed in second place, unable to break the one-hour barrier. Andrea Kuster and Kristin Aamodt (NOR) are already a few minutes behind.

Lots of flow and happy faces
The flow version is no less sporty. After all, the clock stops at exactly one hour for the fastest teams of riders. It should be noted that the Flow Epic participants usually complete the prologue lap on enduro equipment. Former downhill specialist Phil Meier and enduro rider Florian Golay are at the top of the podium here. In the mixed category, Simon Ruchti and his team partner Eva Büchi set the fastest time on the prologue course. The only women's team in the flow race is the duo with Nathalie Schneitter and her German team partner Alexa Hüni.

Fears that the prologue course might be too difficult for most participants are not confirmed. In the Race Village, there are lots of grinning bikers who think the prologue is "just awesome". A good example of this is Urs Güntensperger from the "Doctors without pain" team. The doctor from Bülach is 58 years old and is far from tired of the trails: "The course was great! The technically demanding descent in particular is exactly to my taste, even if we don't tackle it quite as fast as the pros."
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On the second day of the Swiss Epic, the longest of the five stages awaits the participants. A total of 3,050 meters of altitude are climbed over the 92 kilometers. The riders are rewarded with almost 20 kilometers of Suonen trails and many downhill kilometers. Shortly before entering the valley up to Leukerbad, mountain bikers are presented with the impressive rocky backdrop of the Leeshörner and Daubenwand mountains up to the Gemmi.

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