FORMER World road race champion Philippe Gilbert has done some 'cross racing, but the course served up by Red Bull at a lakeside castle in Switzerland was certainly a little unusual. Gilbert raced 'cross whilst riding for French road team FDJ, where DS Marc Madiot encourages the muddy stuff for his road men, but it is six years since Gilbert last rode 'cross and so he admitted to finding the event hard.
It went well, but that was tough and I'm no longer familiar with it - Philippe Gilbert
"It went well, but that was tough and I'm no longer familiar with it," said Gilbert, the Belgian Walloon who won the World road race title in Valkenburg in 2012.
The 'fun' one-hour relay event was contested mainly by well-known mountain bike duos and a handful of roadies all racing cyclocross bikes. The race was won by Lars Forster and Michi Wildhaber with Gilbert and his Swiss BMC team partner Danilo Wyss in 15 th place - not far behind Charge Bikes' British pairing of Ben Simmons and Nick Barnes who were in eleventh (see second film below).
Chenaux Castle in Estavayer-le-Lac is a fairytale-type setting on south shore of Lac de Neuchatel and as to be expected Red Bull had devised a crazy course...
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