PERSKINDOL SWISS EPIC 2016: STAGE 3

BY: Melanie Alexander

Published: 17th September, 2016

The stats for stage 3 of the 2016 Swiss Epic, 91km and 3000m of climbing, meant we were set for a tough long day. This was a transition from Leukerbad where we had spent 2 nights to Verbier where we would send a further 3 nights and finish off the race. The profile for the day showed it starting with a 6km climb, the top of which was compulsory hike-a-bike along a rocky cliff face. Up to this point the race largely stayed together and we could see a number of the other mixed pairs only a few places ahead of us. As we entered the descent I was held up by some tripod-ing and generally deficient in descending skills riders, whilst Melanie slipped past them with some cheeky manoeuvring. A few cheeky lines of my own and I was into the descent, though Melanie was now out of sight. As we’ve come to expect it was a great trail, steep, narrow and with plenty of tight turns. One observation compared to last year however is that the trails are more rutted with braking bumps and whereas in 2015 I never felt compromised on a hardtail, this year there have been several occasions where I would have preferred the reduced jarring and better braking performance of full suspension.

I finally caught Melanie at the bottom, just ahead of one of the leading mixed pairs that she’d passed on the way down. From here we entered the start of 20km of Suonen, singletrack that follows narrow irrigation channels, with plenty of roots, rocks, tight corners and narrow wooden bridges to cross. After the first section of this Suonen we climbed through a residential area at the end of which some workmen were digging a trench. Just as we approached the driver of the digger moved the digger directly into our path, blocking our route, looked at us and just shrugged. Melanie and I kept our anger in check, jumped off our bikes and ran around but a Motorbike Marshall who was coming up behind us was more forthright and exchanged some stern words. It was several minutes later that the moto passed us, so I suspect the digger driver ended up in his freshly dug trench.

This hold up allowed the mixed pair we’d opened a gap on to get back to us and being strong climbers they edged away from us on a wide dirt track that was barely manageable to ride up. This steep section continued for several hundred metres, leading us to the edge of a small town and to the start of another descent. This started with a path straight down a grassy bank, then right onto a narrow road. Or at least it should have. Somehow Melanie and I both managed to miss the arrow pointing to the right and continued down an obvious bike trail. I hesitated briefly as the trail split, but seeing what looked like an awesome trail leading off to the right I signalled to Melanie that was the way and we headed down.

It was a good trail, the most full-on downhill we’ve ridden here. Only it wasn’t part of the Swiss Epic route.

Reaching the bottom after descending 450m at an average -24% gradient and with no signs for the Swiss Epic pushing back up didn’t feel like an option, so we could choose left or right and hope we’d find the course. We chose right and started to climb, eventually meeting the course where it emerged from the Suonen, so we climbed back up past the trench containing the corpse of the digger driver and once again up the near impossible climb, now congested with riders pushing their bikes. Over the top and there was a nice clear arrow pointing right, a shame it had taken us 450m and 8.5km to see it.

Our motivation to race was slipping away at this point and our feed zone stops became quite leisurely. We still rode the descents fast and smooth and the 20km across the floor was covered in only 30 minutes, but heading into the 1700m final climb there was no carrot in front to pull us along, only riders that had been well behind us and we would pass with ease.

Over the top and into the trails of Verbier we were still catching people and it was fun to ride trails we last rode a year ago, but our time as we crossed the finish line put us well out of contention in the mixed pairs race.

Billed as 91km and 3000m climbing we had covered 105km and 3450m. For sure we were annoyed with ourselves (mostly with me as I was leading) but our first goal of returning was to complete the Swiss Epic as a mechanical put us out on the last day in 2015. Had we been unable to find the course or rejoined it after we left it we would not have still been in a position to complete the 2016 edition, so goal number 1 was still alive. We’d also ridden an awesome trail, no fireroad shortcuts for us!