The start was early in the morning, on Friday August 21st, which meant less sleep on the last night before the race, but also only one sleepless night during the race. My plan was to cover the 1.071km and 15.000m of altitude gain in less than 40 hours. During the first Time Station nothing extraordinary happened, but the shock followed right after. My closest rivals for the win signed quickly and I got a little boxed in by other racers, so by the time I signed the sheet, they were long gone. Leaving the town I could feel they were going fast, as my 40+km/h speed was hardly enough for catching them. We were alone by that time and we continued riding fast. The average speed for the first three Time Stations was more then 36km/h! Not knowing the route, I decided to follow the local boys on a safe (and regular) distance until somehow Danny took a wrong turn and I was suddenly in the lead. Being in the valley I considered it safe, so I continued with my own pace. I was surprised when crew chief told me that Danny was the first to loose contact and a little later the same happened to Thomas. I continued strong until a wrong turn got me off course and out of the lead. After some chasing I managed to catch them back and decided to leave the leading to them until the first serious climb of Fluelapass. After a while I could see that Danny was struggling uphill, so I passed him and soon we were alone with Thomas nearing the town of Davos.

At the foot of Fluelapass Ratschob stopped and I continued riding my own tempo. By the top, my advantage was 7 minutes, as I plummeted downhill without stopping. Motivated by taking the lead I pushed pretty hard and my advantage grew ever so slightly. The weather was ideal for cycling, sunny and not to warm. That soon changed with the dark clouds gathering in the Alps and soon it began raining. A short stop at one of the Time Stations for putting my rain gear on and I was on my way again. Fortunately, the rain didn't last long, soon I was riding in a beautiful sunshhine again. And the Suisse Alps are as beautiful as the are supposed to be, I really enjoyed myself in the last Alpine Passes – Oberalpass, St. Gothard Pass and Nufennenpass. There was a moment in which my advantage over Ratschob was only 9 minutes, so I had to push harder to get some healthy margine again. After some hard work, I reached the Nufennenpass. It was pretty cold up there (8°C), so I dressed up warmer and got another adrenaline rush as I sped down the mountain through the night. A flatter part of the course followed, and I was supposed to have fun here. But it was ruined by less than perfect Road Book. Not to my liking, we kept getting lost.

With the morning light a pretty strong head wind started, that wouldn't die before the finish line. There was some good news that enlightened my day – my advantage on Ratschob has grown to 45 minutes. With some difficult stages to come and strong head wind it continued to grow to 1h 20min around noon. Some would think that is a good margin, but my experience from RAS 2009 is bad, so I continued pushing as hard as I could until the finish.

Apart from usual problems like raw behind, nothing much happened in the afternoon. Except, the organisers managed to surprise me with the WALL in the last 160kms of the race. After a few hundred meters, I couldnt turn the pedals anymore, so I stopped and asked the crew either for my spare bike with Compact chainring or to change the rear wheel to the climbing one with the small cog with 27 tooth. Two of the crew members were quickly at their job and in a few minutes I was back climbing, now with a normal cadence. I was glad when this brutt of a climb was over and we put my faster rear wheel back on.

As all afternoon, the last two Time Stations were spoiled by head wind. The proof that I was still in good shape is the fact that the third six-person team didn't manage to catch me for one whole TS. After they caught me, I didn't leave them out of my sight, because they were the home town team and new the roads perfectly. The finishing was awesome – the fireworks went of as I approached the finishing tent. There were hundreds of people expecting me and cheering me on supported by loud music as rode inside the tent and up to the podium. For a moment I felt like a football player who scores in an important game! It was a reception that I will never ever forget!

Second placed Thomas Ratschob followed me »home« 1h and 17 min later and another 1.5h later the third placed Adrian Brennwald finished. All in all out of 25 solo starters, 16 have finished the race, also one of the women Trix Zgraggen in the time of 2days 7h 16min.

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Photos TORTOUR 2009