Milatz and Neff win cold and wet BMC Cup in Buchs

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Jolanda Neff managed to continue her winning streak in Buchs and celebrated her fifth victory on the race course in the Rhine Valley. She had a 57-second lead on Kathrin Stirnemann, and Swedish rider Jenny Rissveds was third, 1:15 back.

German Champion Moritz Milatz was victorious in the men's race. With Lars Forster in second and Andri Frischknecht in third place, the men's podium was remarkable. With the notable exception of former European champion Milatz, all race favorites missed the podium. Fabian Giger and Thomas Litscher finally fell victim to the cold temperatures and the muddy conditions in Buchs.

Giger failed to reach the top positions, whereas Litscher managed to stay in fourth position for quite some time. But finally he became hypothermic and dropped back to seventh place. In his first race of the season, Matthias Flückiger, however, managed to cope perfectly with the bad conditions: He took the front position in the second lap, but soon had to bury his hopes of victory due to a mechanical. His strong comeback finally earned him fifth place.

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Florian Vogel had been in the lead at the beginning, but was then overtaken by Milatz, who is well known as the "rain god" and did neither mind the low temperatures nor the muddy conditions. He soon left Vogel behind and hastened towards a sure victory.

"I knew that I would fare better today than I did last week in Ticino, but I would never have expected to have such a clean run. This victory is very good for my self-confidence," said Milatz.

The fact that U23 riders Lars Forster (+1:04) and Andri Frischknecht (+1:08) made the podium, is most certainly also due to the unfavourable circumstances.

Starting far back in the field, Forster fought his way forward and joined Frischknecht. They both passed Litscher and German rider Markus Bauer, who suffered a mechanical. And they also overtook Vogel. Finally, they fought it out between the two of them on the last descent.

Forster was happy. "This is definitely my biggest success so far. I would never have thought that I could reach second place in this race."

Frischknecht confirmed that in this race Foster had been "the best downhiller" of them all.

Fourth place was taken by Wolfram Kurschat. The German cyclist did a strong final lap and moved up from sixth place.

Women

Jolanda Neff did not have a really good start into the women's race. It was snowing when she made a mistake in the first descent and suffered a mechanical. She admitted, "It was my fault."

She was in ninth position after the first lap, and then she started her furious comeback. On the penultimate lap, she caught up with the leading duo of Jenny Rissveds and Eva Lechner. The three of them were close together when thy reached the highest point of the course. But being a superb descender, Neff managed to gain a lead of more than 30 seconds passing the finishing area to enter the last lap.

"I did not think much about it and just kept going. I'm super happy that I still was able to turn the tables. This is my first elite class victory in Switzerland, and I am extraordinarily happy about it," said Neff.

Italian Lechner, number one of the UCI world ranking, had been in the lead during the first three laps. But then she began to suffer due to the cold and the wet. She even lost third place on the final descent and was hardly able to give any comments in the finish area. "I'm freezing. This is worse than cyclo-cross," said Lechner.

Rissveds gained third position and was "very happy" about it. "On Saturday while training on the track, I still felt tired. But when Jolanda had some problems today, and I was in second place, I was very motivated," said the European sprint champion. "But when Jolanda closed up to us, we were not able to keep up with her. She was too strong," said Rissveds.

Kathrin Stirnemann did an impressive last lap. She closed up to Lechner and Rissveds and still had exceptional stamina. "I was careful to keep out of the 'red zone', and in the end, I seem to have gained some benefit by doing this. I am really happy with second place," Stirneman said.

Juniors

German hopeful Luca Schwarzbauer won the junior category 2:07 ahead of Filippo Colombo and 2:20 ahaed of Ramon Lauener.

In the junior women's category, world champion Alexandra Keller also became a victim of the cold. She was in front position at the beginning, but then she fell back to third place. Nicole Koller won the race 42 seconds ahead of Sina Frei and 1:53 ahead of Keller.

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