New training stimuli on familiar routes

Urs Huber after an interval training session on the Michaelskreuz.

Professional mountain biker Urs Huber discovered the Zugerberg Finanz Trophy last fall during his training rides. This year, he is taking part right from the start.

Urs Huber is a five-time Swiss MTB marathon champion and in 2008 won the bronze medal at both the UCI Mountain Bike Marathon World Championships and the UEC European Mountain Bike Marathon Championships. This is just an excerpt from his impressive palmarès, which he reports on in detail on his website urshuber.ch.

Interval on the Trophy
The trained farmer recharges his batteries for his busy racing calendar in Central Switzerland. "I practically always do my training rides in this direction. Sometimes around a lake or in winter over the fog to Einsiedeln, for example," says Huber. At the finish of the Trophy mountain stage at Michaelskreuz, he recalls: "I completed my second year of agricultural training just around the corner, in Ibikon. From there, I rode up to the Rigi almost every other Sunday. It took me exactly three hours." And of course, he has often ridden over the "Michel" all these years, but he is getting to know familiar routes anew through the Trophy. "I rarely trained intervals. But the Trophy mountain routes are great for that. I cycle up and down several times at a brisk pace, giving me a new training stimulus on routes that I've ridden many times before, but never at speed. They were simply part of my tour."

Up to ten times in a row
So Urs Huber rides up the mountain ten times in a row. He has already made some amusing acquaintances with other Trophy participants as a result: "I saw a participant on the Horben every time I was there. The third time we got talking. It was Daniel Etter, who completed over 100,000 meters of altitude last year."

Thanks to his interval training, Huber is now also leading the altitude challenge. As long as his racing calendar allows, he will continue to step on the gas in the Trophy. It will be interesting to see the results.

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