Shortly after the start, Mathias Flückiger, Nino Schurter and Lars Forster form a leading group. Behind them, another teammate of Schurter and Forster, Andri Frischknecht, is lying in wait in fourth place. Not an easy starting position for Flückiger.

When Forster drops out of the leading trio due to technical problems, Schurter leaves most of the lead work to Flückiger. The duo stay together until the final stage.

"Last year, Nino distanced me decisively on the last uphill. I really wanted to avoid that this year," Flückiger analyzes the final stage. And indeed, the Bernese rider was able to tackle the technical uphill in first place. But the lead work had used up his energy and so he was unable to pull away decisively. In the muddy jump ditch in Solothurn, the world champion was just ahead and took the win.

"I'm delighted with this victory, which proves to me that I'm ready for the World Cup opener. Respect for the performance of the whole team, but also for Mathias Flückiger. He had a tough day against us," says Schurter.

With second place, Flückiger defends his leading position in the "Proffix Swiss Bike Cup".
Andri Frischknecht took fourth place, followed by Simon Andreassen from Denmark, who also won the U23 classification ahead of Filippo Colombo and Vital Albin.

Courtney's first win of the season on European soil

World champion Kate Courtney has already made a successful start to the season in the USA. But the European comparison was still missing. The moment of truth will come in Solothurn, and it will show a picture with the top favorites represented at the top.

The top riders with Courtney, Neff and Nicole Koller stay close together until the end of the third lap, followed by Linda Indergand, Yana Belomoina and Ramona Forchini.
On the penultimate lap, the world champion pulls away from Neff decisively and brings a lead of almost 30 seconds to the finish. With a broad grin at the finish, she says: "This was a very important step in the World Cup season. I'm not really used to conditions like this and although not everything went perfectly in today's race, I was able to take home the win."

Behind Neff, Ramona Forchini showed a strong finish and stormed to third place ahead of Nicole Koller and Linda Indergand. Koller wins the U23 classification ahead of the Russian Kristina Ilina and Lara Krähenmann.

Alessandra Keller is very unlucky. The rider from Nidwalden was in the chasing group of Kate Courtney with Jolanda Neff when she crashed on the fourth lap and had to abandon the race. Keller is then taken to hospital for tests. Further examinations will follow on Monday.

Schätti again

In the amateur and masters race, Luca Schätti takes his second Swiss Cup victory. But by a narrow margin, as Loris Rouiller from Romand missed out on victory by just 1.6 seconds. Sven Olivetti comes third.

Jacqueline Schneebeli wins the junior women's race with a huge lead of over four and a half minutes over her rivals. Nicole Göldi and Annika Liehner share the honors.
Their male counterparts are tactical and close. Kedup Gyagang beat the local heroes from Bike Team Solothurn in the end. He wins eight seconds ahead of Luke Wiedmann and Robin Kull.