What a (Wintery) Weekend! The Snow Bike Festival 2017

Four days, multiple crashes, one sunny and mountainous backdrop, and two victors! Rohrbach and Leumann first to the finish-line at the first UCI Race on snow.

Another weekend of beautiful scenery, blue skies and bike tyres of all sizes racing through the snow. The third and final stage of the

Snow Bike Festival in GSTAAD took place Sunday, January 22, starting along the Promenade, down the ski slopes of Wispile and across the finish line—with a snowy crash or two along the way.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_fUylq3ROY]

Throughout the three-stages, Nicola Rohrback avidly defended his Qloom leader jersey—his closest rivals over a minute behind him. After 1 hour and 20 minutes of thick tyre tracks through the snow, he made his way into Land Rover Finish Village and took the win. After a hard-fought fight with Sascha Weber and Joris Ryf, Florian Chenaux claimed second, Weber coming in third.

A surprising upset in the women’s race as the winner of the 2016 Snow Bike Festival, Hielke Elferink was having some difficulties with the setup of her bike for the first few days and felt she couldn’t compete with Katrin Leumann and Esther Süss. After a last-minute switch to a regular mountain bike on the final stage, she flew past the finish line with a 4-minute lead and was the only woman able to get past Leumann during the festival.

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Overall, it was Nicola Rohrbach and Katrin Leumann who secured victories at the first UCI stage race on snow. Florian Chenaux and Markus Bauer finish 2nd and 3rd. The women’s podium completed by Esther Süss (2nd) and Cornelia Hug (3rd).

For all the results and more information on the 2017 Snow Bike Festival, please visit their website.

Video and Feature image courtesy Snow Bike Festival / Nick Muzik / Quatro Media GmbH