Snow Bike Festival Gstaad 2017 – Prologue and Stage 1

The Snow Bike Festival is Europe’s “Winter Festival of Snow Biking”. The third edition of the innovative snow-bike event takes place at Gstaad, Switzerland: 4 days of thrilling snow-bike action. For the first time, the International Cycling Union UCI honours the race with a “Stage Race Class 2” accreditation. The Snow Bike Festival is the first ever UCI race on snow! The 4-day stage race comprises a prologue and 3 stages. The prologue was held as a short time trial race in the village centre of Gstaad. The first stage of the race, took riders down the valley towards Saanen. Temperatures headed downwards as well, as riders had to endure -18°C in the shade, before embarking on their first climb of the 2017 Snow Bike Festival. The long climb to Eggli is rewarded by incredibly scenic views at the summit. Katrin Leumann dominated the women’s race and added a stage victory to yesterday’s prologue win, thus defending her Qloom Leader Jersey. Cornelia Hug finished second and Süss in third. In the men’s race, Nicola Rohrbach presented a dominant display. Riding a normal bike, he came from behind in the final climb to secure a clear victory ahead of German Markus Bauer, who fought off a strong Florian Chenaux in the last meters of the race.