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Gagné starts season with a snowy second place in Switzerland

Canadian Olympian mines silver in unique mountain bike stage race

Gstaad Snow Bike Festival Raphael Gagne

Many of Canada’s summer athletes spend their winters cross-training on snow, but for Raphaël Gagné, his race season started the same way. The Canadian Olympian just finished second overall in the Gstaad Snow Bike Festival, a four day UCI C1 mountain bike stage race in Switzerland.

While fat bikes were allowed in the race, the “UCI-legal” category was dominated by regular cross country mountain bikes. Even when – in a scene that sound more like Megavalanche Downhill than a XC Marathon – Stage 1 sent racers hurtling out of the start gate and directly down a 1,100m ski hill descent, one of the most unique starts to a  UCI sanctioned cross country race on the calendar.

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Beautiful stage 3, neutral start and then brutal climb 35 minutes 600m of icy pavement and last half on the soft steep ski slopes. Happy I finished 2nd and now in 2nd overall. One last stage today #fullgas Belle 3e étape, je termine 2e et remonte en 2e position au classement général. On a débuté avec un départ neutralisé dans la ville puis une montée brutale de 600m sur 35 minutes, le début en asphalte glacée puis la 2e moitiée dans la piste de ski jusqu’au sommet, abrupte et mou. Je me sens bien en altitude mais il y a des ptits Suisses qui se sentent encore mieux que moi e pense ????‍♂️. Superbe descente ensuite. Maintenant place à la 4e et dernière étape. #gstaad #snowbikefestival @snowbikefestival

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A Canadian in Switzerland

Starting Sunday’s final stage, Gagné was sitting 3minutes 14 seconds behind Switzerland’s Ramon Lauener. Germany’s David List was just 23.1 seconds behind the Canadian, close enough to see his breath in the cold Swiss air.

Racers rode and slid 34km on the final day, gaining and losting 1,1200m of elevation along the way. When the snow settled, Gagné crossed the line third, 30 seconds behind stage winner Joris Ryf, but three spots ahead of race leader Lauener. Gagné had pulled back almost half a minute in the overall, but not enough to overtake Lauener. The Swiss rider wins the 2019 Gstaad Snow Bike Festival, with Gagné earning second and David List third.

Rieder slides into first on final day of racing

Nadine Rieder of Germany used the final 34km to maximum effect, bumping Austria’s Elisabeth Osl from the lead to win the women’s UCI division of the Gstaad Snow Bike Festival. After a misstep in the opening prologue left Rieder six minuted down on the Austrian, the German spent the following stages trying to claw back time from the race leader. She started the final day with a 1 minute 11 second deficit to Osl. Rieder won the stage by just enough of a margin over Osl to take the race win by a razor thin 16 seconds after four days of racing.