This blog post will be about the races the races of the SUP Tour Schweiz in Zurich, St. Moritz and Davos, and the Euro Tour race in Marotta, Italy.
Zurich
This year the SUP Tour Schweiz had its first race in Zurich. It was also the first time a SUP race took place here since the last Indiana battle a few years ago – good old times. As the long and short distance races took place with enough time between them, most of the participants did both of them.
The longdistance race was between Peter Tritten and me, i had a fast start and he took my draft for the first part of the race. The course was an interesting parcour from the rowing clubs to the small Island, under a bridge around a buoy and back to the buoy at the start, four laps for the longdistance. At the buoy before the last lap I managed to open a gap on Tritten and defended it during the last lap. First place.
In the short distance Race, two laps on the same parcour, I had a good lead on Hakim Dridah and Peter Tritten by the middle of the second lap. By the last turn we had some swimmers in the water and by avoiding them I fell, so my comfortable gap was gone. What followed was the longest and tightest sprint to the finish line we ever had. 800m straight from the last buoy to the line, head to head between Hakim and myself. In the end I managed to defeat him by about half a meter. First place too.
Marotta
After the successfull race at home in Zurich I travelled to Marotta, Italy, for my last Euro Tour race this season. The picture above is from the sprint races on saturday. On sunday we had the longdistance race on a slightly altered course to give a flatwater upwind grind and some downwind bumps. I did well in the upwind part but lost a lot on the downwind stretches. 18th place just behind Leonardo Toso.
St. Moritz
Other than last year the longdistance race in St. Moritz started after the shortdistance, so the Maloja wind blew during the whole race which made it one of the longest races of the Tour. Peter Bartl took the lead from the start and managed to stay in his draft for the first lap. In the second lap he managed to pull away from me and Peter Tritten in the sidewind section. From this point on it was a race for second place between us two. After half of the race I got to open a gap in the upwind section of the course, which i managed to defend until the ende of the race. Second behind Peter Bartl.
Davos
The tour stayed in the Alps for the next race in Davos. The field was one of the most competitives we have seen on the tour this year. We all had a fast start and in the middle of the first lap (of three) the lead draft was made up of 5 paddlers. Peter Tritten took the lead of the draft and on the second half of the lap he made a lot of speed and opened a gap between me on second place and the following paddlers. My race plan was to stay in the draft and wait at least until the middle of the race to make a move, but on the second buoy of the second lap I opened a small gap on Tritten and decided to try to defend it, despite the fact that defending a gap for almost two thirds of the race can be long. I held the gap, but never managed to pull away more than a few boardlengths, so the relief after crossing the finish line was huge. First place again.
After the victories in Zurich and Davos, and the second place in St. Moritz, I am now only 45 points behind the first place in the overall ranking of the SUP Tour Schweiz. With two main events and two partner races this means that the season is running towards a tight finish.
Next races will be Luzern, Thun, Eglisau and Buochs.