Efficient Infiniti SCB SRAM extended their general classification lead by 2 minutes and 27 seconds on Stage 4 of the SPAR Swiss Epic, with their third stage win of the 2025 race. Finishing in pouring rain, in Davos, did not dampen their spirits, nor the enthusiasm of Torpado Kenda FSA, who rode a controlled race to keep the day’s victors, Klimatiza Orbea, within 32 seconds ahead of the Grand Finale on Sunday.

Thunderstorms disrupted the plans for the penultimate day of the 2025 SPAR Swiss Epic on Saturday, 16 August, but did not upset Vera Looser and Alexis Skarda as they powered to their third stage win of the race. Marc Stutzmann and Samuele Porro won for the second time in the event, but the men in yellow, Fabian Rabensteiner and Casey South, were able to keep the Klimatiza Orbea team in check. These results mean that both Efficient Infiniti SCB SRAM and Torpado Kenda FSA take healthy leads into Stage 5.

Klimatiza Orbea

Marc Stutzmann and Samuele Porro won Stage 4, but were unable to make a significant dent in Torpado Kenda FSA’s advantage. Photo by Marius Holler.

Leaving the clear skies of La Punt, on Stage 4, the atmosphere darkened as the teams rode north towards Davos. The fastest UCI Men avoided most of the rain on the mighty Scaletta Pass, but the UCI Women were doused by drizzle, and the slower age groupers were stopped at Service Station 2 to allow the thunderstorm to blow over. Earlier, the SPAR Swiss Epic route team had removed the climb in the Val Trupchun National Park to limit the riders’ exposure to potentially dangerous weather conditions. This reduced the stage length from 64 to 52 kilometres and the accumulated elevation gain from 1 900 to 1 700 metres. The Scaletta Pass remained the main feature of the day, and though the run-in to the fabled climb was easier, the pass itself was as challenging as ever. The summit, at 2 606 meters above sea level, came 33 kilometres into the day and was followed by 19 largely downhill kilometres to Davos.

It was on the climb that the day’s winners made their move. Looser and Skarda had started the day with a clear plan and executed it to perfection. “I told Alexis it’s all about riding the Scaletta smoothly,” the team’s senior partner revealed. “You have to focus on getting over the rocks and around tight turns without uncleating. If you can do that, you’ll be quick.”

Rosa van Doorn

The technicality of the Scaletta Pass continued on the descent to Davos. Photo by Michael Chiaretta.

“It was steep and techie,” Skarda agreed. “I don’t think it was too much of a fitness climb, you kind of just have to stay on your bike and keep going.”

Efficient Infiniti SCB SRAM took a 1 minute and 55 second advantage over Buff Megamo onto the long descent to Davos. There the weather conditions added to the challenge of the technical descent. “The rain threw a curveball at the end, and I got so cold I struggled to shift gears,” Looser confessed.

Scaletta Pass

The morning was clear, but by 10:30 the thunder clouds had rolled in an lightning made the high mountains a dangerous place to be. Photo by Michael Chiaretta.

“From the top we had a lot of rain, and the only way was down, so it was really cold,” Rosa van Doorn confirmed. Having ceded time over the summit, the Buff Megamo team descended solidly but still lost a handful of seconds more to the women in orange on the run-in to Davos. “On the Scaletta Pass, I said we had to ride my tempo or I’d explode,” Janina Wüst reflected. “I think we did that well today.”

Crossing the finish line, Looser and Skarda added a further 2:27 to their overall lead. Van Doorn and Wüst were second on the day, and slipped to 11 minutes and 21 seconds back on the general classification. The Bulls Swiss team of Alessia Nay and Kim Ames were third and remain third on the UCI Women’s overall standings.

In the UCI Men’s race, the Scaletta Pass climb provided the Klimatiza Orbea team with the opportunity they needed to launch their stage-winning attack. “It was again a good day for us. We rode like we planned yesterday. We went [on the attack] on the climb to the Scaletta Pass, and then Samuele [Porro] led on the downhill and rode really smoothly,” Stutzmann explained.

Over the summit, the Klimatiza Orbea pair held a 20-second advantage over the race leaders. “Today on the Scaletta Pass, we decided not to push too hard and rode our own rhythm,” Rabensteiner noted. “On the descent, too, we didn’t take any risks. But towards the end, which was less technical, we pushed hard to limit the gap to Klimatiza Orbea.”

Klimatiza Orbea

Klimatiza Orbea summited the Scaletta with a 20-second advantage. Photo by Nick Muzik.

This tactic allowed Stutzmann and Porro’s advantage to grow to a maximum of 40 seconds before Torpado Kenda FSA brought it back to just 32 seconds on the finish line. “I think we did a good job today,” South stated. “We managed the time gap and didn’t lose too much time.”

Klimatiza Orbea’s second stage win moved them up to second on the general classification standings, 6 minutes and 19 seconds off Torpado Kenda FSA in the lead. KTM Spada powered by Brenta Brakes were third on the day and slipped to third overall, though there is just 51 seconds between Nicolas and Lorenzo Samparisi and the Swiss/Italian pairing in second.

Torpado Kenda FSA

Torpado Kenda FSA controlled their pace on the Scaletta Pass and on the descent to Davos, but only ceded 32 seconds over 52 kilometres. Photo by Michael Chiaretta.

While the elite teams did not suffer unduly with the weather, the thunderstorm intensified mid-morning. “We rode fast because of the weather!” Porro joked. “On the Scaletta Pass, it was just some light rain, then on the downhill it was almost sunny, but in the Davos Valley it was raining quite hard. But luckily, we only got 3 minutes or so of rain and just rode that last part really fast to get out of the rain.”

That was not the case for the age groupers; at 10:30 [local time], the racing was paused at Service Station 2 on the Scaletta Pass. 4 kilometres from the summit and 600 metres lower down the mountain an alpine refugio provided shelter for the worst of the weather and saw hundreds of riders huddled together while waiting out the lightning. An hour and a half later, the danger had passed, and the pass was deemed safe to summit, though the rain persisted.

Light rain is predicted for Sunday, in Davos, too. How this will affect the racing remains to be seen, but if the trails are slippery, the leaders will have to exercise extreme caution. This could play into the hands of the aggressors, Stutzmann and Porro. “I know the first climb tomorrow is very demanding, and we’ll be able to go at our own pace to put the other teams under pressure,” Porro predicted. “But this afternoon we’ll have a closer look at the conditions and the course to make a plan for tomorrow.”

Samuele Porro

Samuele Porro believes the first climb of Stage 5 will suit the Klimatiza Orbea team . Photo by Michael Chiaretta.

Sunday’s first climb takes teams from Davos, at 1 500 metres above sea level, to the highest point of the Panorama Trail at 2 321 metres in the first 8 kilometres of the stage. Starting and finishing alongside the ice hockey arena on the lawns of central Davos’s Kurpark, the 49-kilometre Stage 5 is packed with climbs and descents. It is no easy last day, and features 2 000 metres of ascending along with an equal amount of accumulated descent. Highlights included the aforementioned Panorama Trail, as well as the Gotschnaboden and Drusatscha Trails. From the Service Station 3, at the summit of the Wolfgang Climb, it is effectively downhill to the finish, even with a loop into the Flüela valley to the trailhead of the concluding singletrack of the twelfth edition, the Flüela Trail.

To join the SPAR Swiss Epic action for the last time, tune into the live broadcast on the Epic Series YouTube Channel here. Daily highlights from the race can also be viewed on the series’ YouTube Channel, and the excitement from the trails of Graubünden will be shared on the SPAR Swiss Epic Facebook page and @swiss_epic on Instagram. To find out more, visit www.epic-series.com/swissepic.

2025 SPAR Swiss Epic Results:

UCI Men | Stage 4:

  1. Klimatiza Orbea: Marc Stutzmann & Samuele Porro (2:18:58)
  2. Torpado Kenda FSA: Fabian Rabensteiner & Casey South (2:19:30 | +32)
  3. KTM Spada powered by Brenta Brakes: Nicolas & Lorenzo Samparisi (2:20:06 | +1:08)
  4. Metallurgica Veneta: Nicola Taffarel & Diego Arias (2:20:07 | +1:09)
  5. Cannondale ISB Sport: Riccardo Chiarini & Diego Rosa (2:20:09 | +1:11)

UCI Women | Stage 4:

  1. Efficient Infiniti SCB SRAM: Vera Looser & Alexis Skarda (2:53:23)
  2. Buff Megamo : Rosa van Doorn & Janina Wüst (2:55:50 | +2:27)
  3. Bulls Swiss: Alessia Nay & Kim Ames (2:58:54 | +5:31)
  4. Torpado Kenda FSA: Katazina Sosna Pinele & Giorgia Marchet (3:00:27 | +7:04)
  5. Cannondale ISB Sport: Monica Calderon & Tessa Kortekaas (3:05:18 | +11:55)

UCI Men’s General Classification Standings after Stage 4:

  1. Torpado Kenda FSA: Fabian Rabensteiner & Casey South (10:16:10)
  2. Klimatiza Orbea: Marc Stutzmann & Samuele Porro (10:22:29 | +6:19)
  3. KTM Spada powered by Brenta Brakes: Nicolas & Lorenzo Samparisi (10:23:20 | +7:10)
  4. Metallurgica Veneta: Nicola Taffarel & Diego Arias (10:25:04 | +8:54)
  5. Scott Racing 2: Andrin Beeli & Davide Foccoli (10:28:45 | +12:35)

UCI Women’s General Classification Standings after Stage 4:

  1. Efficient Infiniti SCB SRAM: Vera Looser & Alexis Skarda (12:41:52)
  2. Buff Megamo: Rosa Van Doorn & Janina Wüst (12:53:13 | +11:21)
  3. Bulls Swiss: Alessia Nay & Kim Ames (13:05:50 | +23:58)
  4. Cannondale ISB Sport: Monica Calderon & Tessa Kortekaas (13:51:38 | +1:09:46)
  5. Torpado Kenda FSA: Katazina Sosna Pinele & Giorgia Marchet (13:59:31 | +1:17:39)