The second World Cup race of the season is once again a duel. But the roles are reversed. This time it is Julien Absalon who is battling Nino Schurter for victory. Nove Mesto winner Kulhavy is unable to unfold on the steep terrain in the "Bullentäle" and fights for third place with Florian Vogel.

Schurter and Absalon go into the final lap together. It is impossible to tell from the outside who has the sharper weapons. Schurter takes a few meters off Absalon on the downhills, but the Frenchman keeps closing the gap. "I felt great and actually had the impression that I was a bit stronger on the uphill too," says Schurter later. This was also evident on the final climb. Absalon attacks several times, but is unable to distance Schurter. He counterattacks in the final section, is able to gain a few meters and is first into the final descent. At the bottom, where he hits the meadow and the last 300 meters, he has a few seconds lead and is heading for his 15th World Cup victory. But on the exit of a drop, Schurter slips and lies in the gravel. Absalon passes him and the man from Chur quickly jumps back on his bike, but it's too late. "That was a stupid crash, too bad," says Schurter later. "Victory was within my grasp. But that's racing."

Florian Vogel was in the lead at the start with Schurter and Absalon, but then he had to find his own rhythm. Behind him is Kulhavy, for whom the long, steep climbs do not suit him. "The course suits me, so I wanted to push at the start. I paid for that after three laps, but I was able to limit the damage. Jaroslav then turned up the heat again, but I think it was a solid race. The level is very high, but I am confident that I will still manage to ride into the top three this year.

As in Nove Mesto, Mathias Flückiger didn't get off to a good start. He is trapped and is only in 15th place for the time being. From there, he then caught up with Fabian Giger, with whom he battled for fifth place on the podium until the penultimate lap. "It's a shame that I couldn't be there from the start. I don't think there was much missing for the very front. I did very well today, but after the bad start I had to invest a lot of energy," explained Flückiger.

The other Swiss:

12th Matthias Stirnemann
15th Reto Indergand
28th Ralph Näf
33rd Nicola Rorhbach
34th Martin Fanger
37th Martin Gujan
43rd Thomas Litscher
63rd Marcel Wildhaber
84th Michael Stunzi
91st Emilien Barben