Opportunity for a spot of static cycling arises

As previously reported, the Tour de Suisse will be passing through Rotkreuz later this summer, from Friday 12 until Sunday 14 June in fact.
 
In order to make locals more aware about this and to spur them on to become more fit, the Zug Hub Association and the Zug Office of Sport Promotion has set up a number of static cycles where one can time oneself over an imaginary 900-metre course to see how quickly one can cover it. Those who score the fastest times will be able to go forward to a final to be held in the middle of June. In fact some school pupils have been involved in this since February, but now it is the turn of the general public, who will be able to have a go on Friday 24 and Saturday 25 April at the Zugerland shopping centre in Steinhausen.
 
Earlier this week, a number of sports(wo)men and politicians had a go. Not unsurprisingly, the best time was recorded by racing cyclist professional Martin Elmiger (main photograph), who covered the course in just over one minute, or 1:07.34 to be precise. Other sportsmen included the new EVZ centre-forward Emanuel Peter, who recorded a time only 12 hundredths of a second behind Elminger, just beating his team colleagues, Noel Bader, Yannick Blaser and Fabian Schnyder. A number of Swiss-wrestlers also took part.
 
Stephan Schleiss, the cantonal director of education, performed in his suit, though he did take off his tie, and recorded an impressive 1:14.28. He was joined by Heinz Tännler, the head of the cantonal government, and Beat Villiger, the cantonal director of public safety, both of whom both took less than their targeted times of 1.30. The fastest female time was recorded by skier Nadja Jnglin-Kamer (second photograph) at 1:21.98.
 
The organisers hope that as many as 10,000 will have taken part in this static cycle competition by the time the real Tour de Suisse starts.