Chur expects the world's best

On 7 May, the second round of the ÖKK BIKE REVOLUTION will take place in Chur. The race is listed as "Hors Category" in the calendar by the cycling world federation UCI and thus belongs to the exclusive circle of top mountain bike events worldwide this season. Chur has several very exciting stories to offer this year.

Olympic champion Jolanda Neff is in the mix

She was the big winner of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Jolanda Neff won ahead of the Swiss women Sina Frei and Jolanda Indergand. Since then, her presence in Switzerland has become rarer. But in Chur she will be there. And she is aiming for her first victory in a race of the ÖKK BIKE REVOLUTION.

The Olympic champion does the honours

Team Ineos Grenadiers has signed up for the mountain bike treat in Chur. And so Olympic champion Tom Pidcock (GBR) and world champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (FRA) will be there. So both Olympic Champions (Pidcock & Neff) and both World Champions (Schurter & Ferrand-Prévot) will be at the start in Chur. For Pidcock it is the first MTB race in a long time. He is competing for the first time as part of the ÖKK BIKE REVOLUTION in Switzerland.

City spectacle in Chur

Chur is the oldest city in Switzerland. And the course in Chur also leads through the middle of this old town. The mixture of single trails in the training area of the world champion and fast passages through the narrow historic streets of Chur promise a unique mountain bike spectacle.

For the first time an Iranian woman rides in the ÖKK BIKE REVOLUTION

In her home country, female athletes have a hard time. Even more so in these times of unrest. Iranian Faranak Partoazar (34) comes from Shiraz, a city famous for its flower culture, and has already won 8 national championships and 2 bronze medals at the Asian continental championships. She is a new member of the team of the Swiss Claudio Caluori (former Swiss Downhill Champion) and is participating in the ÖKK BIKE REVOLUTION for the first time.

Many nations at the start

The race in Chur has a top international line-up. It has been a long time since so many nations were at the start outside a World Cup event in Switzerland. The Swiss will be up against athletes from the USA, France, China, New Zealand, Romania, Germany, Chile, Italy, Israel, Poland, Japan, Iran, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Austria, Namibia, Liechtenstein and Belgium.

New series, second season

The ÖKK BIKE REVOLUTION was launched by Ralph Näf (former mountain bike world, European and Swiss champion, today team manager of the Thömus maxon team), René Walker (among others OC president of the Mountain Bike and Trial European Championships 2013 Bern), Lorenz Luginbühl (owner of GFC Sports Management AG) and Nino Schurter (10-time world champion) 2022. The new Swiss series focuses on innovation, organisation and the promotion and development of the sport. This year, five races are on the international calendar, two of them in the highest category "Hors Category" (Chur and Huttwil). In addition to a high prize money of 160,000 Swiss francs (more than in the World Cup), high investments were made in the production of live broadcasts and venue dressing, among other things.