Swiss Epic 2019

Back in Switzerland for my second Swiss Epic and the 6th edition of the race. After 5 races all ending in Zermatt, this year the race moved east to the Graubünden region of Switzerland with a start in Davos, stops in St. Moritz and Lenzerheide before returning to Davos for the finish of the final stage.

As with last year I was racing with Alex for Chaingang RT. I think all cyclists will check the weather forecast before a race but a poor long term forecast had us obsessively checking our favoured weather forecasting apps on the evening before Stage 1. They all showed dire conditions for the morning of Stage 1 and perhaps because of this I found it hard to summon up enthusiasm for the race. Davos, which is a big town (it’s the highest ‘city’ in Switzerland), was also not inspiring with clouds covering the views of the surrounding mountains and raining lashing down on the tarmac.

Stage 1

True to the forecast it rained for most of the first two hours of the stage, but not a hard as expected and with enough breaks in the cloud to see some views of the valley below. The riding was not that technical – certainly when compared to last year’s Swiss Epic – but with muddy rocks and tree roots one had to stay focused. It was still fun to descend though it would have been even more enjoyable in the dry.

We started in Group B and as the stage progressed we started to see the same teams on the road, with the team that we crossed paths with the most being two Swiss, Francois and Sandro. The final long climb was a 800m ascent on the road to the Albula Pass on which they did a fine job of setting a strong pace. Unfortunately after crossing the col, there was a rolling section which some proper winter cyclocross slippery slop followed by a muddy descent into the valley containing St Mortiz. As we began descending I felt some cramps in my legs which resulted in total seizure if I stepped of the bike… which unfortunately happened a couple of times when a team in front of me got off to walk one or two sections.

As a consequence we lost Francois and Sandro (who finished a place ahead of us in the Masters category) leaving Alex to put in a sterling effort on the front on the 15km flatish section that led to some final single track ups and downs and the finish.

I started to suffer on the rolling single-track after the Albula Pass. (Photo: Sportograf)

This volunteer couldn’t wait to take Alex’s bike away to clean it.

And this is where the bikes went to be cleaned.

This is one of the Swiss Epic’s race images but I liked it, especially as that looks like Alex’s bike. (Photo: Sportograf)

Cleaning up required an outdoor hose down followed by multiple rinses of clothing in the shower. I kept rubbing gritty lumps out of my eyes well into the evening! In St Moritz we are staying in a large old hotel called the Reine Victoria. It may have been grand once… but on the other hand given the amount of mud that the Swiss Epic competitors left in the hallway and potential blockage to the hotel’s drainage system if was just as well the management were not too precious about it.

We finished 68th in GC and 21st in the Masters. Further down than last year but I think there is more competition (100 masters teams compared to 58 last year). For example the infamous Thomas Frischknecht (founder of the Swiss Epic and ex-MTB pro) finished 10th in the Masters today. But most importantly we made it into Start Pen A tomorrow which de-stresses the whole experience as we won’t have to push hard to get ahead of everyone… because we’ll be at the back!

Stage 2

Slept fitfully – it’s surprising how poorly one often sleeps at these multi-day events – and every time I woke I could hear rain lashing again the windowpanes. However, the day dawned dry and after much prevarication I decided, a minute before starting, that my Gabba without a rain jacket should be sufficient. Which was the right choice.

With one exception – more on that below – the trails were in good condition and nice and flowing. Not at all like the sustained technical rocky trails from last year’s event though there were several sections with tight hairpins. The crux of the day was a climb up to 2543m and the Lake Lej Alv. This was made up of a steep gravel trail, followed by a single-track climb and descent, and finally a gravel road.

The gravel trail climbed 500m and Alex set a pace that was fractionally faster than my body wanted to go. This took me to edge of exhaustion and the following 3.5km single-track, climbing up through some high meadows on a muddy and sometimes rocky trail which required some pushing, took me to the point where I couldn’t steer the bike properly even when I had successfully remounted it. A muddy single-track descent followed to the final gravel road which was thankfully had nothing too challenging about it other than it was steep in places. The altitude was starting to take its toll but compared to what had come before it was easy.

The view of Lake Lej Alv, now in the sun, was beautiful but we had no time to take absorb it as we almost immediately began descending on enjoyable mountain bike flow trails back to St Moritz. We ended in the sun and lounged around eating the event lunch; fried noodles with some incredibly hot fresh chilli sauce, alcohol-free beer (just as well as one with alcohol would have wiped me out) and a coffee from the nice folks at Ibex Coffee who are supporting the event.

As mentioned it was another muddy day… (Photo: Sportograf)

As evidenced by the mountain-bikers tan on my calves.

We were 69th in GC but had a better Masters placing than yesterday with an 18th. Our rivals, Francois and Sandro, finished a minute ahead of us and a place ahead of us in GC. It remarkably how consistent everyone is. The things that will make the GC move now I think are mechanical problems and punctures.

As well as washing more grit into the hotel drains, we had an explore of St Mortiz. Alex got further than me making it to the town centre. I stopped by the lake, ate a loaf of bread and a packet of cheese and fell asleep in the sun… until I was woken by a rainy squall!

The centre of St Moritz. I never made it there.

At dinner we were given personalised copies of the Engadin News (the picture is from the finish of Stage).

Stage 3

My appetite was practically non-existent this morning (for those that know me that doesn’t happen often) which was not a good sign. Today’s stage started with some ups and downs for about 5km before a 15km flat section. The plan was to try to get in a fast group for that flat section… a plan that was executed flawlessly until I realised I had a rear wheel puncture, just at the point where we were charging down the valley on the back of a group of about 20 riders. Luckily it seemed to self-seal after a blast from a CO2 canister but that left Alex and I to ride solo to the start of the climb up to the Albula Pass (which we had crossed in the opposite direction on Stage 1).

After a steep road climb, gaining about half the altitude to the pass, the route profile showed an innocuous looking single-track linking to the main road up the pass. This turned out to be a narrow traverse path – falling left was not an option – with some strenuous short uphill sections. It was here that I realised that I too tired to manoeuvre the bike at speed. Not wanting to go off the edge I slowed things down a bit and girded myself for a long day. It’s at moments like that one wonders why one enters these multi-day races.

The road climb to the Albula Pass…

… before a final section of single-track ascent.

Alex was having some issues with his brain (the one on his S-Works) so we stopped for a refill of air into the rear shock.

Looking in the other direction to the food stop on the Albula Pass.

However, I found that once I had eased back the pace I was riding reasonably well, the descents were still enjoyable and there were others who we passed who were in a worse state.

There was a fair amount of pushing and carrying on the descent below the pass. Strenuous. (Photo: Sportograf)

The stage finished in Lenzerheide with the final section including the tree root filled steep descent from the XC World Cup circuit. I negotiated this without any problems or too much thinking, but the flatter sections below were harder with tired legs with lots of big tree roots to muscle over.

That final descent meant that we ended the stage on a high. I have to hand it to the route planners. The stages are hard without being sadistic, for example extremely steep sections usually don’t go on for too long, and all the descents are unique and memorable in some way. Our GC position for the day of 90th reflected our slower pace, but we surprisingly finished 21st in Masters and maintained our GC position of 19th. Unlike last year post-stage massages were not included in the race package. However as was the case after Stage 2, I felt so tired that I was easily persuaded to pay the 40 Swiss Francs for a massage.

Stage 4

At last we had a dry day which was warm enough to wear our Chaingang kit rather than Gabbas. Today was the shortest stage of the race but with c.2000m of ascent and some steep ramps highlighted in the briefing, I was worried about whether we’d see a repeat of yesterday’s weak legs. My right wrist was also painful, and continued to hurt and make a strange noise, like two bits of dry leather rubbing together when I moved it, for several days… it’s strange how these pains seem to appear. I think it may have been from carrying the bike on Stage 3 where there were several unrideable sections in the forest, but luckily continuing riding did not seem to make it any worse.

There’s a pretty lake in Lenzerheide which we rode around as a warm-up.

We even had time to catch up with a friend from last year’s race, the one and only Sabina.

Team Chaingang with Andy (see Stage 5 below) in the background.

On the first climb we fell in behind two Austrians, Michael and Philipp who were setting a steady pace. Most of the A group had already disappeared up the narrow tarmac road. I’d noticed that these two start slowly but always end up beating us, so it seemed to make sense to adopt their tactic.

Tracking Michael and Philipp.

View down to the road we had ridden up.

This was near the top of the first climb, before the final gravel section.

Luckily the cows kept walking in a straight line.

On the single-track descent back down to Lenzerheide after the first climb of the stage. (Photo: Sportograf)

Michael and Philipp got ahead on the descent, had to deal with a mechanical issue and then overtook us again meaning that we rode with them up the second long ascent of the day too. This featured lots of super steep (more than 20%) ramps on a gravel trail. These required maximum effort, seated and leaning over the handlebars to stop the front wheel lifting. Hard work. Alex pulled ahead and whilst I cursed him inwardly, it was one of those climbs that was so unpleasant that the quicker it was over with the better, so once at the top I didn’t blame him.

As a reward for the sweat and toil, the descents were all good with bike park trails (red and blue) down from the first climb, and rocky and technical paths and steeps from the second. All in all a fun day out on the mountain bike with a decent result too. 71st in GC and 18th in the Masters.

Somewhere on the final descent of the day. (Photo: Sportograf)

A tough but fun day out on the bike.

Stage 5

I woke feeling nervous about the stage, but I knew from previous races that it would all too quickly be finished and the whole experience sadly over.

Waiting for Stage 5 to begin.

We hung back on the initial climb meaning that we were almost at the back of the group, only ahead of teams that had had mechanicals. But the tactic paid off with us steadily over-hauling riders ahead. It had rained heavily in the night meaning that the tree roots were extra slippery. On the initial long descent there was another one of the tricky traverses through a forest on a narrow trail which I have realised this week are my Achilles Heel. Alex had pulled ahead with Oliver and Hans, another two Swiss riders who we have seen a lot over the last few days (and who came third in the Grand Masters), so I was by myself for much of it which was actually quite nice as I could go at my own pace.

Our grupetto shortly after the start of the stage. (Photo: Sportograf)

Hans and Oliver and a Colombian team, Carlos and Juan.

Somewhere on the above-mentioned slippery traverse through the forest. (Photo: Sportograf)

In the valley I was caught by a couple of familiar faces, Andy (a friend of Stu’s so a Chaingang member by association) and Xavier, and I was grateful for some help as we rode together until the first food stop where we picked up Alex. From here the climbing started interspersed with a cool descent down into a gorge that has been originally in the route for Stage 1 but which had been taken out due to the heavy rain.

Following the old road (or railway?) up the gorge.

When there was about 500m of vertical to go I knew I could start pushing hard and we had the satisfaction of catching a lot of teams, including Francois and Sandro. Part way up the climb, Alex also discovered that his new Sram AXS electronic derailleur had run out of power! Luckily he had also purchased the AXS electronic dropper post so he swapped the dropper battery with the derailleur one. Problem solved, though it meant that Alex had to negotiate the final wet, rooty and rocky descent sans dropper, which he did with aplomb, giving us our best position in a stage so far with a 15th in Masters and 62nd overall.

Swiss Epic 2019 done and dusted. (Photo: Sportograf)

Our final GC position was 65th overall (out of 287 teams that started) and 18th in Masters (out of 100 teams). Andy and Xavier finished a few minutes ahead of us in the Masters and Francois and Sandro a few minutes behind. I know from talking to them that each team had a least one mechanical issue (in both cases with shocks locking up) and bad day energy-wise so I think in comparison we were lucky. As with last year it was a fantastic event. Well organised with an interesting and well thought out route. The accommodation was very good; we had a family suite in Lenzerheide at the excellent Hotel Dieschen and our hotel in Davos, the Grischa, was also plush. And the post race food was varied and tasty… although I think it will be a while before I eat a meal of barley oats (lunch for Stage 3) which played havoc with my digestive system. It was just as well Alex and I had separate rooms in Lenzerheide!

As with all the Epic events the daily videos were much anticipated and can be found here: Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4 and Stage 5.

Thanks too to Alex for most of the action pics.