Czech rider Jaroslav Kulhavy spoils Nino Schurter's show in front of his home crowd. The Olympic champion decided the duel in his favor after the Swiss had to cope with a defect. Czech Ondrej Cink comes third ahead of Mathias Flückiger and Frenchman Maxime Marotte. The "big three" dominate the action in the first few laps, but world champion Julien Absalon is a little behind. However, the Frenchman loses crucial ground on lap six of eight when he suffers a rear wheel defect. In the end, he finished ninth.

So Kulhavy and Schurter fought the duel that they had already fought at the start in Nove Mesto. But this time it doesn't come to a thrilling finish, as Nino Schurter loses air and has to make a pit stop. As a result, he lost contact with Kulhavy and was unable to come back against the strong Czech. "It was a mega feeling in front of the home crowd. It's a shame about the flat tire, but that's mountain biking," says Schurter, shrugging his shoulders. As a result, there was no Swiss home victory in the men's race either and Schurter recorded his third second place in a row.

Mathias Flückiger finishes fourth this time after two fifth places. "I actually knew that I shouldn't push so hard at the start, but I wasn't quite in control," explained Flückiger, who lost the leading trio and experienced "two or three tough laps", as he was later to describe it. Once he had recovered, he got into a three-way battle with the German Manuel Fumic and the Frenchman Maxime Marotte in a chasing group.

On the last lap, Marotte attacks on the asphalt climb, but Flückiger is able to counter and ultimately takes fourth place. "I'm absolutely happy with that," said Flückiger. Third best Swiss rider is Ralph Näf. However, he did not finish as far ahead as he had hoped. "My legs weren't good, especially at the start. Things went better at the end, but it was tough with the heat," says Näf about his eleventh place. He rode the third-best time in the final lap.

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