Switzerland teamed up at the EuroMTB 2016!

The team-sprint started in a beautiful evening sun and to the cheering from the large crowds as riders tock off in a cloud of dust. But there where now shadow over the Swiss team who early on wason a chase for gold.

A large crowd  had gathered in the slopes of Huskvarna Sweden to watch the Team relay (XCR) in the warm evening sun. The grid of 17 national teams was mixed men and women and offered real excitement as riders overtook each other through out the race. Early on Switzerland showed that they had gold in their mind.
The crowd cheered as Switzerland crossed the finish line first and France made a go for the silver medal in the Bianchi-slope just next to the straight ahead of Germany. But the race was all excitement with fierce fighting for all positions. Emil Lindgren riding fourth relay for Sweden made a heroic effort and overtook both Russia and Norway for 9th place (Emil hade the 5th fastest lap time of all riders today).

France and Switzerland battled for the first place for almost all of the race, also Netherlands were in the fight. World Cup leader Jolanda Neff battled down World Champion Pauline Ferrand Prevot during the 3rd lap making Lars Forster (SUI) coming out second place for the last leg chasing down Netherlands. Germany had a strong last leg moving up to 3rd. Great Britain also had a good relay, Richards and Ferguson making strong 3rd and 4th leg. Czech Republic one of the top contenders had a good pace early stage came in 4th.

First day of EuroMTB couldn´t have started better and as the Swiss team rose to victory and the sun slowly decended into Vättern lots of smiling faces already looked forward into Fridays event with Cross country eliminator (XCE).

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