100% Women Gravel Challenge
Intro
Four days through Switzerland! Nine (ex-)professional cyclists from all disciplines will take on an exceptional challenge from 20 to 23 May 2023 and cycle across Switzerland on their gravel bikes.
The 100% Women Gravel Challenge is not for the faint of heart: the ambitious tour leads from Lake Constance to Lake Geneva, on both paved roads and gravel paths. The aim of the challenge is to showcase women’s power on bikes and to present the diversity of Switzerland as a cycling destination. Fancy emulating the pros? Gravel riders can trace the whole route in stages within around two weeks. The majority of the route is on officially marked SwitzerlandMobility bike and mountain bike trails.
They have made it! We warmly congratulate the participants on this success.Impressions from on the road
These are the women taking part
Nathalie Schneitter
Nathalie started her international mountain bike career in 2004 by winning the junior women’s cross-country world championship title. Since then she has been racing full throttle on tracks all over the world. In 2008, she qualified for the Olympic Games in Beijing, and in 2010 she secured the home victory at the Cross-Country World Cup in Champéry. In 2019, she became the first E-MTB world champion in history, and in 2020 and 2022 she won bronze.
Monika Sattler
Monika is an executive mindset coach, two-time cycling record holder, international keynote speaker and author. With more than 15 years of experience, she helps leaders, teams and individuals set bold goals and pursue them successfully – through confidence, purpose, courage and resilience. As a keynote speaker, she shares her experiences from her cycling records. Her recent record is cycling all 124 Swiss Passes in 26 days. Her latest book "Abenteuer Gravel Transalp" Guide Book is published this March 2023.
Andrea Sauser
Cross-country racer, organised cycling events for women early on. After gaining her master’s degree in sports management, she worked at the International Cycling Union (UCI), in 2016 for the Olympic Games in Rio. Recently, Andrea has been a live commentator for the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup on RedBull TV, worked as Senior Manager for the E-Bike World Tour and is now Head of Operations for the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships 2025 in Valais. She is married to ex-professional mountain biker Christoph Sauser and lives with her family in Yvorne (VD).
Linda Farczadi
Mathematician, moved from Canada to Switzerland in 2015, where she is currently working as a senior data scientist for the federal government. She started her cycling career with Granfondo races, winning the Haute Route Alpes in 2019 and the Haute Route Ventoux in 2021. Today, she competes in ultracycling races all over the world. Last year, she and her husband Philippe won the Bohemian Border Bash, the 20K UltraTrail and the Swiss Ultracycling Challenge in the couples category. She is co-founder of Lausanne Gravel, a community for gravel and bikepacking enthusiasts that organises epic rides through Switzerland.
Emma Pooley
Emma is an author, athlete and engineer. As a cyclist, she won the World Time Trial Championships and five other medals at the Olympics, World Championships and Commonwealth Games. As a duathlete, she won the Long Distance World Championships four times. She competes for Switzerland in mountain and trail races. Her first book is a sports memoir and recipe collection that will be published in 2023.
Anita Gehrig
Anita is passionate about anything with two wheels. But what really gets her heart pumping is the Enduro mountain bike. During her career as a professional mountain biker, she has travelled the world and made it to several Enduro World Series podiums. Since opening her Flem Mountain Lodge, she has cut back a little on racing. But she is never short on adventurous projects together with her twin sister Caro.
Caro Gehrig
Caro has explored the best bike trails in the world at Enduro World Series races. But she feels most at home on the single trails of the Alps. The local trails in Flims are her perfect playground to indulge in her favourite pastime – trail shredding! Since she no longer takes part in Bike World Cup races, she also spontaneously rides her gravel bike to Sicily now and then.
Isabel Tambach
Isabel is part of the BMC Ride Crew. The Dutchwoman has been living in Austria for a year and is looking forward to exploring Switzerland as part of the 100% Women Gravel Challenge. She raced from 2011 to 2021, and in 2017 she was a two-time national champion on the track in sprint and keirin, with a silver medal in the 500m race.
Daniela Michel
The Swiss Cycling MTB Guide Advanced has been running her own bike agency Trailstar MTB Guiding and Training for almost 10 years. Her main job is as a physiotherapist and sports physiotherapist in a practice that includes a fitness offering in Lenk. In summer, she leads technical training and bike camps. A highlight of the season is always the six-day Enduro week in Valais. In her free time, she races Enduro at national and international level.