Vogel wins Swiss cross country title ahead of Schurter

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Florian Vogel and Nathalie Schneitter won the elite Swiss cross country national championships on Sunday in Plaffeien. On a hot summer day, a thunderstorm hit and quickly turned conditions into being extremely wet and muddy.

Thomas Litscher won the U23 race while Jolanda Neff took victory among the junior women as expected. However, Dominic Zumstein surprised with a victory in the junior men's category as did Lorraine Truong in the U23 women's category.

Nino Schurter was a big favorite in the men's race, but after the first of six laps he was in 10th place. His teammate Vogel was controlling the pace at the front and was chased by Balz Weber and Lukas Flückiger, who later dropped back to fifth place where he finished.

Schurter had better next laps and worked his way up to fourth and then up with Weber.

Vogel was long gone and the sprint was for silver. Schurter beat Weber for the silver although he crashed after the finish into the barriers, having no brakes left.

"At the beginning, I was a bit tired from the World Cup racing. Riding those downhills without any brakes left was such a challenge that I almost started to like it. I knew everyone had the same problems. I'm happy for Florian that he is the guy taking over my title. There is still one more jersey to win this year."

"It was a very uncomfortable situation riding at the front having no more brakes left," said Vogel. "Even though I had a good lead, I was not sure till the very end if I was going to make it. This sure was a stressful race. I can't remember of anything similar in the past. I'm stoked about the title. It takes away some pressure while preparing for world championships now."

In the women's race, last year's winner Esther Süss was defeated by Nathalie Schneitter. Third went to Marielle Saner-Guinachard, who was in her second race after a period off the bike.

In the U23 men's race, Thomas Litscher was in a class by itself, and he won by two minutes over Matthias Stirnemann and Jérémy Huegenin.

Kathrin Stirnemann suffered a mechanial on the first lap and never recovered in the U23 women's race. Truong took the win ahead of defending champion Michelle Hediger. Third place went to Sabrina Maurer.

In the junior men's race, Lars Forster was alone in the lead from the start. He was chased by Andri Frischknecht and Dominic Zumstein. In the final turn, all three came together and Zumstein came out on top ahead of Forster and Frischknecht.

Jolanda Neff was able to defend her junior women's title.

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