Looser on Swiss Epic podium for third year
Mountain biking
For the third time in three years, Vera Looser has finished on the podium at the SPAR Swiss Epic mountain bike tour.Following a bronze in 2022 and gold medal triumph in 2023 – both with Kim Le Court of Mauritius as her team mate – the Namibian champion rider finished the last week’s five-stage race with South Africa’s Danielle Strydom.
The pair, known as team Efficient Infiniti, finished each of the five stages in second place behind the tour winners Monica Calderon Martinez (Colombia) and Tessa Kortekaas (Netherlands).
This year’s race of 341 kilometres in five days, with 11 450 metres of climbing and 12 600 metres of descent, took the elite women’s winning team 20 hours 31 minutes to complete.
Looser and Strydom followed in overall second place on the general classification, by a margin of 24 minutes 37 seconds. The Italian combination of Constanza Fasolis and Chiara Burato were the third team on the podium, almost 50 minutes behind the winners.
The Swiss Epic is substantially shorter than the Cape Epic in terms to the number of days, total distance, and daily stage distances, but the vertical ascent is more aggressive. Even the start line is already at a higher altitude than the highest peaks of the Cape Epic.
The long ascents of the Swiss Alps clearly suited the Colombian and her Dutch teammate best and they put over 4 minutes into their nearest rivals on both Stage 1 and 2.
On Stage 3 Calderon survived a potentially damaging crash with just a cut to her right knee, which bled theatrically, but did not affect her performance or the team’s ability to win the stage.
It was then Kortekaas’s turn to crash on Stage 4. Once again, the result remained the same as she crossed the line muddy, unhurt and victorious.
In the UCI men’s race, Lukas Flückiger (Switzerland) won his third title with his countryman Gian Schmid being in the winning team for the first time.
• Among the masters men, the Namibian pair of Greg Chase and Marcel Surén (team Bunny Chasers) finished in 25 hours 17 minutes, to be placed 17th in their category. The class winners were Karl Platt (Germany) and Calle Friberg (Sweden).
• Registrations for the 2025 SPAR Swiss Epic will open on 3 September.