The 2024 Swiss Epic

Unbelievable views, wild routes, unique landscape, historic villages, and one of the toughest weeks of racing you could ask for. This was the 2024 Swiss Epic.

I learned an immense amount – being one of the first partner races I’ve completed at the (UCI) highest level. The aspect of competing as a unit –not just by yourself– and navigating five days of racing as one was actually pretty rad. Jerry Dufour and I were partners, and as you probably know, we fit like a glove. We were both on the same page in a variety of ways: fitness, abilities, and skill. But even more important was the similarity in our mentality, durability, and stress response. We’d spent a lot of time together over the last decade of racing and know how each other ticks.

​I feel that each time I line up to a challenge like this I expect to suffer, to get out of my depth, and have a general anxiousness about how I’ll “do”. This time, it felt a little more like curiosity; more excited about the opportunity than nervous about it.

It’s something that’s taken years to get to and I don’t think there’s a way around the path to getting there other than lining up hundreds of times.

Embarking on a five-day stage race where nearly every inch of the route is blind, the days are shockingly full gas, and you wake up sore to the touch makes you wonder how you’ll do it again…sounds wild, right? But these events are starting to become really fulfilling. I love that I get so much more out of an event than just one 90min slot where you are half-hoping things go right. You get to cover remote parts of a country you’d never see, piece together trails you’d never ride, and develop a relationship with the race that normally doesn’t happen. We have breakfast with amateurs in the morning, race the same route as everyone else, and get to tell war stories over the same dinner. It almost feels like connecting with the roots of mountain bike racing again – the mountain biking I fell in love with.

Also, let’s not shortchange where it took place: Switzerland. This place is just unreal.

Each stage brought a unique challenge. One may be longer, one with a dauntingly huge climb, or one with punchy short sections of trail. Either way, every day was different and somehow all equally hard. After getting the cobwebs blown out on day one, we started to crawl our way forward through the overall placing day by day. We didn’t “rush” to make up ground, but patiently chipped away at each day and let our bodies adapt to this new normal. We used a 1-10 effort scale to check in on each other, trying to stay always hovering around a 7 or 8 except when we needed to press on the gas and make a difference. We never went to an 11/10… saving the few matches we could except on the last stage which got us a PB finish.

Racing is just part of the whole stage race circus, though. There are the hotel transfers, bottle and tech station planning each evening, sink laundry, fuel calculations for the next day, and eating. So much eating. And not just, “Wow, this is nice. I’m so hungry and get to just keep eating”, but the “I’m bloated and tired and just don’t want more carbs, but I have to keep eating.”

However, we got into a rhythm. Found our little routine. Discovered little ways to get in more calories. Had a dialed fueling strategy. Knew how to adapt to the weather and terrain. Streamlined the process…and then it became normal. I actually sort of missed having a race to line up for a couple of days later. (Sort of)

All in all, Jerry and I couldn’t have asked for a better week. We left the tank empty right when we needed to, pushed it every day, and experienced no crashes/flats/major mechanicals…just a smooth and solid week. We progressed up to 17th overall and, despite the constant pressure to want more, are pretty proud of that. We were behind guys with more stage races and marathon experience in their legs than you could calculate and we were the first Americans in the field. Also, it was rad to do it in the US National Champ kit too, if I may add.

I’m looking forward to more of these.