Nino Schurter wins at 1400 meters above sea level according to a pattern that he writes into the competition for many of his victories. On the first lap, the Australian Daniel McConnell is first in the lead, but then Schurter passes him relatively easily before the descent and by the time he crosses the finish line after the first of seven laps, he already has an eight-second lead over the Swede Emil Lindgren, who is then passed.

Behind Schurter, Absalon tries to close the gap, but doesn't take the final risk because he doesn't want to risk dropping out. A 32nd place should be enough for him to take overall victory.

From then on, Schurter controlled the race from the front. "I didn't have to go into the red zone on the uphill and I made up time on the downhill. I was hoping to make up more than 30 seconds, but you have to make up time against me first. And I still had some energy left," says a smiling Schurter with a wink. "For me, it was one of the best races of the year," said Schurter after his third win in a row and 14th overall, which puts him in third place in the all-time leaderboard behind Absalon with 29 and Frischknecht with 17 World Cup victories.

Absalon is fighting with Fumic for second place and has disadvantages with his hardtail against the fully rider from Germany. However, he is stronger on the climbs and pulls out enough of a lead on the last lap to secure second place on the podium.

Lukas Flückiger gets off to another bad start. He was not aggressive enough in the first two corners and only came out of the first lap in 21st place. He then rode a great catch-up race, meeting his brother Mathias on the fourth lap, who was still riding for fifth place in the overall standings, but he was unable to keep up. "I didn't help him, but in the final phase I perhaps lacked the energy to attack third place. At least I made up time on Nino from the second lap onwards and that's not too bad," commented Lukas Flückiger. In fact, he produced the best time on laps four to six.

Ralph Näf finally gets off to a good start and lines up in eleventh position, together with his team-mate Moritz Milatz (GER) and Spaniard José Hermida. "I realized at the end that I had more to offer and rode away from them. It's nice to show that I can still do it," said Näf, who finished 18 seconds ahead of Mathias Flückiger with a difference of 1:48 minutes. A fifth Swiss rider, Florian Vogel, finished in the top ten in ninth place.

www.redbull.com

www.uci.ch