In the fourth round of the UCI Downhill World Cup in Lenzerheide, the Swiss women have made a promising start to the race weekend. Fifth place for Emilie Siegenthaler and eleventh place for Carina Cappellari in qualifying are promising harbingers for the race. Lea Rutz is another Swiss woman to qualify for the final - a first for her.

In the race, Rutz is the first Swiss racer to take to the track and finishes 17th in her first World Cup final run. However, her ride is not ideal. "I crashed just before the first road gap, whereupon I lost momentum and had to ski around the jump. That cost me a lot of time. I'm still happy with my ranking," says Lea Rutz.

Carina Cappellari also didn't get through her race run without crashing, as she explains: "I was a bit too fast at the start of "Tschäffs Plunge", which meant I didn't get a good grip on the upcoming right-hand bend and slipped. The fact that I still achieved my best World Cup result is simply amazing. I was pretty nervous and there were so many fans on the course making so much noise that I really got chicken skin."

At her home World Cup of all places, Emilie Siegenthaler was unable to capitalize on her fifth place in qualifying. She makes a mistake in the very first stone field and tries to make up for lost time. She almost succeeds until the "Peatys Plunge" road gap. "I actually jumped cleanly into the landing. I must have hit a stone there, the rim broke right through and the air was out of the tire. That was the first time in six years, so it can happen. It's just frustrating that it has to happen here of all places," says Emilie Siegenthaler and adds: "But it's cool that Carina was able to achieve her best result and it's great that we're getting stronger again in Switzerland."

Siegenthaler finished in 23rd place, but was greeted like a winner by the fans at the finish line.

Atherton remains unbeaten
Britain's Rachel Atherton is once again unchallenged. She takes her third World Cup victory of the current season in Lenzerheide. She relegates reigning world champion Manon Carpenter and Australian Tracey Hannah to second and third place. Only the Frenchwoman Emmeline Ragot could have threatened Atherton. She rode the best time in the first intermediate time, but then made two mistakes. First of all, she went sideways in the fastest passage and had to pedal up over the next jump. In the following root passage, she crashes and thus misses the jump into the top three. She has to settle for fifth place.

Rachel Atherton continues to distance herself from her pursuers Emmeline Ragot and Tracey Hannah in the overall standings. Emilie Siegenthaler is currently in eighth place. Carina Cappellari has made a leap forward to tenth place. This also helps her with regard to the next World Cup. She will then be considered protected, i.e. seeded. This provides some relief, because if she doesn't make the required top 20 for the final at the next race in qualifying, she can still compete in the final run.

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