Summer 2006: Remo Gugolz has just founded WINFORCE AG — the company from Baar is just a few months old — when Dani Wyss starts pedaling in Oceanside, California. Destination: Annapolis, Maryland. 5,000 kilometers. 50,000 meters of altitude. The Race Across America, RAAM for short, is considered the toughest bike race in the world. Wyss wins it.
What the RAAM demands
The RAAM has no stages, no regular breaks, no starting field in the classic sense. Whoever starts, rides — until Annapolis or until they give up. The best riders are on the road for nine to twelve days, sleeping less than four hours a day. Heat in the Mojave Desert, cold in the Rocky Mountains, headwinds on the Plains. The body wears itself out at a pace that normal food can hardly compensate for. Nutrition is not a detail, but a prerequisite.
Wyss relies on Winforce. The products from Baar at the time provide him with the energy he needs for every kilometer — from the Pacific to the East Coast.
What this victory means for Winforce
A startup that equips the winner of the world's toughest cycling race in its founding year: it doesn't get any better publicity than this — and Gugolz never planned it. Wyss' victory shows that Winforce products work under conditions that no laboratory can simulate. Gugolz had developed his formulas because he found existing sports nutrition too artificial and too sweet. The 2006 RAAM was the first major test outside the garage laboratory — and it was a clear success.
Today, almost twenty years later, Winforce is the official nutrition partner of the Groupama-FDJ WorldTour team. The road there starts here.