Hynek and Stošek win Swiss Epic stage 2

Kristián Hynek and Martin Stošek won today’s second stage of the five-part Swiss Epic mountain bike race. The home favorites and leaders of the competition, Nina Schurter and Lars Forster beat the 75-kilometer-long track by 36 seconds and improved by one place after the fifth place from the introductory stage.

Jan Vastl, who is riding in a pair with another Swiss Fabian Giger, finished eighth today and is tenth overall. Olympic champion from London Jaroslav Kulhavý with Simon Andreassen from Denmark is currently in 31st place.

“The first stage started up a very long hill and then a long descent. We had a great performance up that hill, we went up the second, but the descent was very technical, we were worried there. We weren’t good enough for the best, and we were quite frustrated.” Hynek said about Tuesday’s opening stage, in which Forster lost the winning duo Schurter, almost seven and a half minutes.

“Nino has a great advantage, as he knows the environment well, he couldn’t go with it, he was completely different from everyone else,” Hynek stated. Today’s stage with a large climb at the end suited the Czech couple much more. “On that hill, we showed that the performance is really very good. We were first upstairs. Then there was only a short descent, so we kept it until the finish, which we are very happy about. We improved our mood,” he added.