TORTOUR Ultracycling – nonstop cycling: 1.000km, 5 Alpine passes, Day & Night
It’s the biggest multi-day non-stop ultracycling event in the world: from August 17 to 20, 2017, TORTOUR was held for the 9th time. The road cycle race with start and finish lines based at Schaffhausen with the beautiful and famous Rhine Falls, demanded everything from the athletes.
Within only 48 hours, they had to conquer a 1,000-kilometre course including five Alpine passes, riding whether solo or as part of a team. Not only the hard route challenged the athletes, the weather was quite difficult for them as well. Temperatures up to 30 degrees Celsius, extremely hard rain and heavy wind forced the athletes.
TORTOUR Ultracycling attracted ambitious amateur athletes, current and former cycling professionals as well as well-known captains of industry. This year, the most famous participant was the Olympic and World Champion Fabian Cancellara who participated at the race format CHALLENGE in a team of 3 for the second time.
Roger Nachbur, in the men’s solo category, took first place thanks to a strong individual performance of 37hrs 33mins and subsequently became the Swiss Ultracycling champion. Nicole Reist became the TORTOUR CHAMPION for the women’s solo riders for the fourth year in a row.