Caroline Baur also drives for her late brother Felix

When Caroline Baur starts the World Championship road race in Uster on Saturday, her thoughts will be with her brother Felix. “Somehow I always ride for him. I know he would be proud of me.” Actually, it would have been possible for Felix to have started the World Championship in Zurich. “He was a super strong rider and this course would have suited him,” says Caroline Baur.

Flashback to December 2013. At the time, Felix Baur was a great Swiss cycling talent. The 21-year-old was preparing for the season in a training camp in Alicante, Spain. But on the last day, it happened: He was hit by a car.

Half an hour before the accident, he was still writing to his sister Caroline. He was looking forward to coming home. And he asked whether he should train again at all. “I wrote to him and told him he should. After all, we had bad weather here in Switzerland and it was the last day of his training camp.”

On the day of the accident, Caroline and Felix’s younger sister was giving a final presentation at school. “My father, she and I were there while our mother was at a Christmas market in Germany.” Then my sister and I wanted to go into town, my father drove home. Later he called to say that he was already on the plane to Spain. Felix had had a bad fall.”

The next day, the family flies over. Felix is ​​in a coma and the family is only allowed to see him briefly. “It was crazy. When we talked to him, his values ​​changed. “Somehow he noticed that we were there,” says Caroline Baur. The family flies back with Rega. Four days after the accident, Felix Baur dies in Winterthur on December 22, 2013, at just 21 years old.

The loss of a big brother and a best friend

For Caroline Baur, the loss is a big one. She describes her brother, who is two years older than her, as her best friend. They share the same circle of friends, the same career path and cycling.

Caroline is in the middle of preparing for her final apprenticeship exams (LAP) as a businesswoman. Sometimes she has lost all memory of what she has done. She underlines things in her documents and makes notes. “The next day it was as if someone else had written it,” says Baur. It is only thanks to her good preliminary grades that she passes the LAP.

She got into cycling through Felix. She used to do athletics. “Then Felix’s bike was too small and everyone said I should give it a try,” she says. Felix Baur also became a motivator for his sister. “I always had problems with self-confidence and he always encouraged me.” Today Caroline Baur says that she would have been more successful without her brother’s death.

Some of her friends cannot understand why she continues to cycle after Felix’s death. But Caroline Baur describes cycling as “our thing”. “I have experienced so many wonderful things cycling with Felix, so I didn’t want that to be taken away from me too.”

Today she speaks of fate when she talks about the fatal accident, for which Felix Baur was not to blame. “He could have crossed the pedestrian crossing that day and the same thing would have happened. At least that’s what I try to tell myself.”

In 2014, Caroline Baur accepted an offer from the Swiss women’s professional team Bigla. It was a mistake. The team boss bullied Baur, saying she was too fat. She quit in the middle of the season.

She started anew in the USA and rediscovered her love of cycling. She raced in America for three years before returning to Switzerland. She lived in Winterthur and grew up in Elgg in Zurich. Caroline Baur was born in Rheinfelden, Germany, on the border with Switzerland. In the interview, she speaks standard German, “although I actually speak perfect Swiss German.”

Since this season, Baur has been a lone fighter in cycling. She terminated her still valid contract with the Israel Premier Tech Roland team. Last year was too bad, the support from the team was too weak. The 2022 Swiss champion was repeatedly out with Covid last year, sometimes unable to train for weeks. “Unfortunately, there was a lack of understanding and support from the team.”

“I see similarities between Felix and Gino”

The understanding is also lacking on a day when the cycling world is out of joint. Swiss top rider Gino Mäder suffered a serious fall on the Albula Pass during the Tour de Suisse. He succumbed to his injuries on June 16, 2023. When Caroline Baur heard about it, the ground fell from under her feet.

She is reminded too much of her brother Felix. “I see a lot of similarities between Felix and Gino. Unfortunately, I didn’t know Gino very well, but both of them are said to be social, helpful and nice. Maybe it really did make a difference that the good ones had to go first.”

They will not be starting in the Tour de Suisse, which is the day after Gino’s death. But her team manager forces her to start. She sets off, but is beside herself.

As she heads down the mountain, she thinks to her competitors: “Why are you all riding so fast?” It happened to Gino just the day before yesterday!” She is normally considered a good downhill rider, but she is nervous at this Tour de Suisse. She is doing poorly in terms of sport. “In hindsight, I should have refused to ride.” But I felt under pressure.”

Now without a team, she has found her own sponsors and designed her own jersey, which she and her boyfriend Corey Davis wear. The American was a professional cyclist with Team Q36.5 last season, but now he only does gravel racing. Caroline Baur also does gravel racing, but is also active on the road. She did fewer races, but is happy with her results. But she had bad luck at the European Championships when she was so badly affected by a gastrointestinal infection that she had to give up the race.

Caroline Baur now works full-time as a store manager for the cycling clothing brand Q36.5 and the cycling brand Pinarello. But cycling is still her top priority. “I always plan the whole week so that I can train enough.”

Caroline Baur’s task in Saturday’s World Cup race is to support the two Swiss team leaders Noemi Rüegg and Elise Chabbey. She will think of Felix every now and then. She has a tattoo on her wrist that reminds her of her brother. “For me, Felix is ​​my guardian angel,” says Caroline Baur. Somehow he always rides with her on the bike.