The stage to Aigle started with an awful pain in my left foot. I desperately needed the team to stop but they couldn't find a spot to safely park for a few km and it was a great relief when I could finally get new shoes on. At the same time we changed bike a prepared for the night riding.
The descent towards Aigle was dry and it was fantastic feeling as I know the road quite well and didn't have to use the brakes too much...
The following stage to Nyon was less fun. Flat, a lot of traffic lights and the feeling of getting really tired. Somewhere before Lausanne I decided to take a short rest waiting for the team . They had stopped in Montreux to get some hot water... As they passed and saw me on side of road, sitting they thought I had a crash and Erik came flying out of the car...
Finally in Nyon I took a 5 minutes rest in the car, eating a bit of solid food and publishing my ride on strava... A bit useless and just a waste of time, so a note for next year: don't bother about it until the end of the race!
On the following stage to Yverdon I was able to find a reasonable rhythm and continued over St-Croix without too many problems. The downhill were extremely cold with a light rain and temperature just above freezing. I followed my plan to stop at the lac des Taillieres, a few km before Le Locle for a longer break, complete clothes change a 15 minutes sleep. This was in retrospect a very good idea and I felt like totally rested after that, even scoring the best time of the following two stages, despite a fall close to La Chaux-de-Fonds on a slippery train track... I was making a lot of time on the guy in front of me I could pass him after Delemont, giving me the third place for the Swiss Championship. This gave me also an extra motivation boost.
I had changed to the TT bike in the stage to Balsthal and decided to keep it for the Passwang which has slopes up to 15%... This was actually one of the nicest stage, at least for the start as the weather was sunny and my family came to cheer me up. So I stopped a bit longer at the restaurant close to the top of the pass for a soup a chat with the family.
The long flat stage to Glattfelden was also nice with some tailwind and I could start to feel the end coming near. So with some relief I started the last stage knowing that I was well ahead of the 4th guy for the Swiss Championship, not knowing yet that the guy in the second place, well ahead of me, had an accident I could not finish the race.
I changed bike in Benken as I didn't want to get over the last hill on the TT bike and more important I wasn't sure if I could get off the TT bike without help of the team... It was actually a struggle to get me off it as stretching my leg over the saddle almost gave me a serious cramp... and would not have make it without Erik pulling on one side and Marc helping to keep my balance... It would not have been a nice scene for the finish line...