The Verbier E-Bike festival in Switzerland took place at the weekend, and it also hosted the first edition of the epic E-Tour du Mont-Blanc that covered 300km and crossed three countries.
There was a huge 12,000m of climbing on the route with 260km of it on singletrack, and it was contested by 16 teams including three women's and two mixed teams. Professionals, retired pros and passionate amateurs were involved, and interestingly the professional Swiss freeskier Jérémie Heitz took part for the 'experience'!
Local pairing Florian Golay and Olivier Grossrieder won the race, with a time of 13 hours, 19 minutes and 24 seconds. The team in second place of Christoph Sauser and Bundi Silvio were 12 minutes behind, with Sauser's motor breaking on the approach to the Col de Malatra - this forced him to push it uphill for 45 minutes.
The anglo-swiss team of Tracy Moseley and Nathalie Schneitter won out of the women's teams in a time of 19 hours, 18 minutes and 10 seconds.
The Verbier E-Bike festival in Val de Bagnes was also a success, with e-bike enthusiasts able to test out bikes, cheer on riders in the races (there was also the Tour du Val de Bagnes taking place for amateurs) and soak up the atmosphere. All the results and info if you're interested for 2020 can be found on verbierebikefestival.com.
