Felix Engelhardt triumphs: Red for the best mountain rider in Switzerland!

Felix Engelhardt triumphs: Red for the best mountain rider in Switzerland!

The cycling season has some exciting twists in store this year. Felix Engelhardt from Senden is one of the young athletes who is currently cycling his way into the hearts of fans. On June 15, 2025, he competed at the GP Gippingen and impressed with a solid seventh place. But that was just the beginning of his adventures on the bike, as he took part in the Tour de Suisse shortly afterwards, where he pedaled for the Jayco AlUla team.

In the first stage of the Tour de Suisse, Engelhardt showed that he was not just there, but that he wanted to be actively involved: he appeared in a breakaway group and was able to secure nine mountain points. SWP reports that with this success Engelhardt wears the coveted red jersey for the best mountain rider. His overall performance is impressive - with a gap of just eleven minutes to the stage winner Romain Grégoire from France, he is in strong form. Despite his helper services at the Giro d'Italia, where he supported his teammates, Engelhardt is now visiting the mountains of Switzerland on his own.

A young athlete on the way up

2023 was a year of change for 24-year-old Engelhardt. Born on August 19, 2000 in Ulm, he now lives in Innsbruck and celebrated his 23rd birthday by entering professional cycling. He has already racked up 50 days of racing in his first season and is now turning the road towards the Vuelta. Like him in one Interview with Tour Magazine He revealed that it is about gaining experience and fulfilling his role in the team well, while at the same time he wants to take the opportunity to achieve his own successes.

Engelhardt consciously chose his new start at Jayco-AlUla and draws a positive conclusion. “I feel like I’m in the right place here,” he says about the decision to move to a non-German-speaking team. This year is Engelhardt's first in the top league of cycling and he has already left behind prestigious races such as the Cyclassics in Hamburg. Even if these were only preparatory, they were an important step on the way to his goal: the first race through the Vuelta from August 26, 2023.

Mountain adventures and new challenges

His successes are promising. Engelhardt took his first win in the Italian one-day race Per Semper Alfredo in 2023 and holds great promise for the future. He was also able to secure a stage win at the Vuelta a Castilla y Leon and took second place in the overall ranking. However, the preparations for the Vuelta are not without challenges - he is particularly sad that he will not be able to take part in the Deutschland Tour in 2023 because the races overlap. Nevertheless, he is full of energy and wants to stay active as long as he enjoys cycling.

With the red jersey at the Tour de Suisse, Engelhardt proved that he is strong-willed and ambitious in his first professional season. With every outing he pushes to push new boundaries and prove himself. Cycling will be keen to see how the young rider fares in the further stages of the Tour and on his journey to the Vuelta. There is no doubt that there will be a lot to be heard from this up-and-coming athlete.