All posts by : raidevo

Despite stiff competition, Team Papival completes the Raid Evolenard double. In the men’s category, last year’s winner, Martin Fanger, won the Raid Evolenard FMV for the second time after a fierce duel with Belgian champion Frans Claes, who finished second. Marc Stutzmann came third. In the women’s race, France’s Estelle Morel, runner-up at the European Championships, won ahead of Germany’s Bettina Janas, winner of the Swiss Epic, and Alexandra Zürcher.

Shortly after the start, a trio of favorites Martin Fanger, Frans Claes and Marc Stutzmann managed to break away and gradually increase their lead over the rest of the field. Whereas in the second loop, Stutzmann had to let his two rivals go on the climb to La Forclaz, Belgian champion Claes chose to pick up the pace in the final kilometers of the last climb to Béplan, and managed to open up a gap on Fanger at the highest point. The Belgian champion was determined to beat the course record set by Johann Tschopp in 2015: 3h10’20”.

But Martin Fanger was not to be counted out. Thanks to a more direct line choice and increased risk-taking on the final descent, Fanger managed to catch up and overtake Claes to win the Raid Evolenard FMV for the second time. However, he missed the course record by one minute. “Frans was very strong today and even managed to pull slightly ahead of me on the climb. On the other hand, I had the fastest line on the downhill,” Fanger summed up. Claes was less happy: “I had great legs and lost the race on the downhill. I’m a bit upset about that”. Marc Stutzmann lacked strength on the second half of the course: “At first, I was feeling good. But then, for some inexplicable reason, I couldn’t keep up with my two companions. But I was still able to secure third place at the finish”, Stutzmann summed up.

In the women’s race, Estelle Morel was the favorite. In place of Irina Lützelschwab, who withdrew, Bettina Janas kept pace with Morel for some time. At the first climax on L`Etoile, Morel was already alone in the lead with a 90-second advantage. By the finish line, the gap had grown to over six minutes. Morel was satisfied: “After the good result at the EC, I expected to win here”. For her part, Bettina Janas declared: “I certainly know the course, having ridden it before. But it’s still surprisingly hard every time – even though I like it when the climbs are steep and the descents technical. My ambition was to stay with Estelle as long as possible and then ride at my own pace. It worked out pretty well. Alexandra Zürcher was the third fastest woman to cross the finish line in the Evolene Arena.

Stéphane Chevrier, co-chairman of the organizing committee, also drew a positive conclusion: “With almost 650 participants over the weekend and a high level of participation on the marathon course, the race continues to gain in appeal. The Swiss championships coming up next year will enable us to build on this momentum. And the feedback from the public was also very positive, which makes us very happy”.

Due to health problems, Ariane Lüthi recently put an end to her career. The marathon specialist, who boasts one of the best records in the world, talks to us about her career and her new projects, just a few days before the Raid Evolénard, where she will be coaching the next generation of runners on June 17 and attending the adult race on June 18.

You just end up your career after a couple of difficult months where you were fighting with health issues. Can you tell us a bit more about what happened and how you came up to this decision?

After I had contracted the Covid virus during the 2022 Cape Epic I never felt that I fully recovered and struggled with Chronic Fatigue ever since. I had trouble sleeping, was a lot more tired than usual and whenever I pushed myself out of my comfort zone, I had a hangover feeling for several days. I used to train close to 20 hours a week but since June last year I could hardly get to 5 hours of very easy riding. Many weeks I didn’t ride at all, because I felt too tired or because I was sick again. In December I went on training camp to Spain where I was hoping to build up some fitness, instead I got a very bad tooth infection and was lying in bed for a week. My immune system was just not strong enough to handle any stress. After that I had to admit that I won’t be able to get back into racing shape for summer 2023. At the same time I was pretty busy with our Pump for Peace Racing Team that I founded together with Claudio Caluori in 2022. I felt that it was much more important to put my energy into this project which I feel very passionate about and help these riders that have a much longer career still ahead of them than trying to get back into shape myself to perhaps win another race. Now that I am still not fully recovered and still terribly unfit, although I made an effort to very slowly build up my fitness, I know that ending my career was a very hard but right decision. 

You have one of the most impressive track record in cross country marathon, with a record wins at the the Cape Epic, medals at the European and World championships and many Swiss titles. What are the successes you are the most proud of?

The bronze medal at the 2020 Marathon World Championship in Turkey definitely stands out for me. I was in the shape of my life and never believed as much in me as there. Winning a medal at Worlds was a goal I had worked for for 10 years and finally all the pieces fell in place, the feeling of that is just indescribable. 

Apart of the race results I am mostly proud of the development I have gone through on a mental level over the 12 years I raced professionally. I used to be incredibly nervous before each race and was fighting mostly against myself rather than the competition. The night before my first Cape Epic in 2011, I didn’t sleep at all because I was vomiting all night – due to stress, not a tummy bug. I used to be a mess leading up to this race and the World Championship every year. I’m happy to have grown in that aspect and that I managed to race my last years with much more joy and not in fear anymore. 

Another thing I’m looking back at with a smile is the advancements in striving for more equality and fairness in marathon racing which I was a part of. Together with the Cyclists Alliance, a rider union for professional female cyclists, we pushed for a separate start for women in marathon events and a non-drafting rule between categories. The separate start is now in the UCI regulations. The non-drafting rule isn’t there yet, but the new UCI XCM World Cup doesn’t allow drafting between men and women anymore which is a great success for fairer racing in my view.

You will be still active in the mountain bike world as part of the management of the team Pump for Peace. What is the concept behind this team and what is your role in this venture ?

Pump for Peace is a Non-Profit-Organisation initiated by the pump track building business Velosolutions which aims to make cycling more accessible for everyone around the globe by building pump tracks in underprivileged communities. Together with founder of Pump for Peace and Velosolutions and former DH pro, Claudio Caluori, we formed the team in 2022 to support Iranian female mountain biker Faranak Partoazar so she can participate at the XCO World Cups and has a chance to qualify for the Paris Olympics. Claudio has already envisioned to one day form a Pump for Peace team to support riders from difficult backgrounds for a long time and when I called him to help Faranak he immediately said yes. We added Tumelo Makae from Lesotho, who basically grew up next to Pump for Peace’s first pump track in Roma, to the team to have enough UCI points and riders to make it a UCI registered MTB team. For 2023 we managed to acquire more sponsors which allowed us to add young South African talent, Unathi Nxumalo who grew up in a township in South Africa. Together with Andrea Raemy who used to work for Pump for Peace in its first years, I am now managing the team. I obviously try to pass on my experience as a former professional to the riders, but each rider still has their own personal coach. While Andrea is very busy sorting out visas, a huge hassle for our riders, and is booking all the flights and accommodation, I am responsible for the equipment of the riders and thus work closely with our sponsors. The most exciting part is supporting them at the races however. I feel extremely privileged to work with these talented, but very humble and grateful athletes who are leaders of the sport in their communities and inspire the next generation to dream bigger and lead a healthy lifestyle. As a team we aspire to help make the sport more colourful. To achieve a more diverse sport we support our riders to become role models and together we break down barriers not only for them but also for those who will to follow their path. 

On the 17^th of June you will again be present in Evolène to inspire the future riders during our traditional Kids Coaching Day. What motivates you to be part of this activity?

Firstly, I think it’s a really great initiative of you, the organisers, to bring the (former) pros and potentially the future riders together which I very happily support. I used to teach kids swimming for many years to finance my studies as a sports student. I’m definitely still a better swimming teacher than mountain bike coach but I look forward to hopefully show the kids how fun it is to ride a bike off-road. 

5.      On the 18^th of June you will follow the women race on your e-bike and make live video to allow MTB enthusiasts to live the Raid Evolénard from the inside. With a strong field, it’s possible that the time established by Esther Süss in 2015 will finally be beaten. What do you think about this new generation of riders and do you already have a prognostic based on the riders who are already registered and the profile of the race?

It’s very nice to see so many strong women from many different countries lining up in Evolène. It’s going to be a very exciting race to follow. The new generation has started this sport mostly from a younger age than I or Esther have and are therefore more skilled. I’m happy to see the women’s field growing but it should be growing faster in my opinion. There is still too few opportunities for women to race marathon professionally. But I hope that the new UCI World Series which XCM is a part of, will lead to more investment into the discipline.

From a Swiss perspective Janina Wüst and Irina Lützelschwab are very capable of winning the race, but Estelle Morel from France who has won the Grand Raid before and Bettina Janas from Germany who’s a Swiss Epic Champion are very strong climbers too and will give them a good run for the money. And not to forget Greete Steinberg from Estonia who has won in Evolène before. 

After securing a second title of Swiss champion in 2022, Konny Looser needed a new source of motivation for 2023. His selection to race the “Lifetime Grand Prix Series”, a highly prestigious series of races in the US was exactly what he was looking for. As a consequence, we won’t see often the Swiss jerey on the starting line of a race in Switzerland this year. The Raid Evolénard will be one of the few stops Looser will make in his home contry.

Last year you managed to secure a second Swiss champion title. For someone who is engaged in so many races around the world, and spend so much time outside Switzerland, how important was it to win the Swiss jersey.

For me, winning the Swiss champs was always the major goal of the last year because I knew I can win it on the BergiBike route if I am in top form. At the race day, I was so convinced that I am going to win it, that it was almost no surprise and I only realized on how much it meant to me afterwards. Also the way I won it was special because it was a super close sprint but I never gave up until the final cm! The level in the marathon sport in Switzerland has increased every year and wearing the jersey around the world is very special. Wearing the national champion jersey has worldwide the same honor and everyone knows that one has achieved something big. There were races where I had to fight harder but the reward was much less. Also many organizer are happy to invite the national champion which is an extra benefit.

In 2022 you had again an extremely busy season, racing during 11 out of 12 months all over the world. What were the best moments of this year and what is your overall assessment?

The season has started with a huge disappointment as I have missed the first big goal (Cape Epic) due to Covid. But after that, I could fight my way back and the first big highlight was winning the Titan Desert in Marocco for the second time. This was very special and afterwards there was the next big highlight with the Swiss title but also my 5^th victory in a row at the Salzkammergut Trophy. I could also round it off with another big win at Wines2Whales in South Africa so the overall assessment was very good. But there were also some disappointments like Swiss Epic and World Champs where I know I could and also should have done better. 

This year you will be riding mostly in the US to take part to the «Lifetime Grand Prix Serie». Can you tell us more about this race and what it means for you? 

The Lifetime Grand Prix Series is a new series and there are 7 major races involved around the USA. It’s a mix of gravel and mtb marathon races and there were only 35 men and 35 women worldwide allowed to race for the series titel. So it is very special and a big honor that I got selected and I am super excited to have received this opportunity! There are also the two biggest and well-known races in the USA (Unbound gravel & Leadville Trail100) involved, two races I wanted to compete already for a long time! 

This also means that you won’t be able to race a lot in your home country and the Raid Evolénard will be one of the few races you will do in Switzerland. What do you like about the race and what convinced you to come? 

Yes indeed, this year I won’t race often in Switzerland, but you know I have done most of the races many times and I am looking for some new challenges to keep the motivation high. The Raid Evolénard fits very good in my racing calendar this year so although I struggled with the race in the past, I would like to give it another try!

Das Raid Evolenard will again be the host of the Swiss Championships next year. Winning a third title will be one of your goals in 2024?

I don’t look so far ahead anymore as I have already a long career behind me and there are many uncertain points regarding my future. I will fully focus on this years season and after that, I will look ahead. But to do the race this year will be a benefit for next year, although I will miss the Swiss Champs this year in Grindelwald.

You just switched from Stoll to Rose. Can you tell us more about how this opportunity came and what do you think about this brand after riding on it for a few weeks? 

I have been racing as a private rider in the last two years now and it was a great partnership with Stoll bikes. But for the future and also the gravel races in the USA, I needed some different support and with Rose bikes, I could find the perfect match for my projects and also my philosophy. The first contact came in Namibia as they have made their pictures for the new website in one of my favorite areas. I have been riding the bike now for a few weeks and I am super happy about it!