Fritz Blindenbacher, the race organizer, also offers a randonneur (drafting) race on the same course. All eight of the randonneurs started their event.

The eighth Radmarathon was 720 km long with 22 passes and 5800 vertical meters. The race started and finished in Wiedlisbach. This year Blindenbacher changed the course to a figure eight, with the south loop going through Emmental, and the north loop through Jura.

The randonneurs started on Friday, July 11, at 8 a.m. and beginning at 12:01 p.m. at one-minute intervals the elite riders set off on the endless route trying to qualify for RAAM.

Strebel climbing to Affoltern in heavy rain.

Heated by the Föhn wind, the midday was unusually warm and the first participants dropped out soon after the first 102-km loop, exhausted and dehydrated.

It could only get worse: the riders trying to qualify for RAAM were underway on the long, flat straight between Solothurn and Biel, when the forecasted weather change announced itself with violent squalls, such that riding into the headwind became nearly impossible. When the wind calmed down, a severe thunderstorm broke over the riders. Lightning, thunder and torrential rains accompanied the heroes of the country road on their journey through Jura and into the setting night.

The pitch-black night demanded everything of the remaining riders as they made their way through flooded and gravel-covered streets, and the DNFs piled up.

The winner, Andreas Strebel, is congratulated by Andreas Maeder, the president of radmarathon.ch.

Although 100 route signs were posted, two disastrous navigation errors occurred during the night. A Danish rider found himself in Basel after he missed the turn-off in Moutier and a German group ended up on the freeway near Oensingen.

On Saturday morning, nine of the original 32 riders were still underway, though two more pulled out once they realized that qualifying for RAAM was no longer possible for them. The five RAAM-Qualifier riders, who finally reached the finish-line, were all within the time limit of 15% off of the fastest rider not already RAAM-Qualified, and thus all qualified for RAAM.

Next Year: July 3-4, 2009