5th World Cup Champion Title, 5th consecutive World Cup Victory in 2017, 25th World Cup Win in total- Nino Schurter keeps on breaking records!
Mont Sainte Anne, Canada. Nino Schurter’s winning streak continues! Though the season is not even over yet, with the 5th consecutive World Cup victory this year, 2017 looks already as brilliant as it can get for the #1 of the Mountain Bike Cross-Country scene. The Olympic Champion secured his 5th World Cup Champion title even before World Cup finals in Val Di Sole take place in three weeks.
In a hurry for the next success- Nino Schurter not slowing down at all. Photography: Joakim Rissveds.
After two World Cup wins and a national title in July, Nino took the decision to skip European Championships to fully concentrate on World Cup business. This turned out to be a smart move as he showed up in Mont Saint Anne in perfect shape. Feeling fresh and strong from start to finish, the classic of all mountain bike World Cup races was once more under the direction of the World and Olympic Champion.
From Top: rocks and roots are the signature of the MSA track. N1NO leading out the French armada. “Beatrice downhill”, the “piece de resistance.”
At the beginning Nino had to deal with an armada of French riders, namely Titouan Carod, Stephane Tempier, Maxime Marotte and Jordan Sarrou. However, not part of the French chasers was the one Nino fears the most, Julien Absalon. He had a bad start, eventually finishing in 13th. After Nino kind of had his French competitors under control it was German champion Manuel Fumic who launched an impressive attack. But the so far unbeaten leader of the series had an answer for all of this.
Nino Schurter with 2016 U23 World Cup champion Titouan Carod- the one who stayed on Nino’s wheel the longest.
With two laps to go Nino had had enough of controlling the race and launched his attack! Though he never had a “safe” margin, he brought the 15 second advantage he had on Carod and later on Tempier successfully to the finish line.
Crossing the World Cup finish line for the 5th time in a row as the winner- Nino Schurter.
It was a day for the record books! Not only is his 5th World Cup overall title secured, winning 5 World Cup races in a row in the same year is something no one else has managed to do before.
More than pleased with his success Nino stated, “It’s not the primariy goal to set new records, but now as I have conquered something that has not been done before, I’m surely proud of it. I found a great set-up with my SCOTT Spark 900 and felt I was at a 100% today.”
“It’s not the primariy goal to set new records, but now as I have conquered something that has not been done before, I’m sure proud of it. I found a great set-up with my SCOTT Spark 900 and felt I was at a 100% today.”
From top: Matthias Stirnemann showing a good performance with an 18th place. Fast but not lucky – Andri Frischknecht.
Two guys from the SCOTT-SRAM team were under extra pressure in MSA. Matthias Stirnemann and Andri Frischknecht were trying to successfully make the entry to the Swiss national team for the World Championship in Cairns- which turned out to be a difficult task. Andri Frischknecht started out better than ever riding in 14th place the first two laps. A mechanical pushed him out of top 20 to eventually finishing in 25th place. Not too bad, but he still had 8 Swiss guys in front of him. Matthias Stirnemann after a slow start moved up consistently to finish in a good 18th. But also he had 6 Swiss guys ahead of him. This said, to make the Swiss MTB national team entry it’s like trying to make the Brazilian soccer team.
Michiel van der Heijden in his new Dutch champion dress.
Not an ideal race but at least Michiel van der Heijden has the ticket to the World Championships in his pocket. He finished in 37th.
World Cup Comeback of Olympic Champion Jenny Rissveds
The most difficult task of all riders would be kept for Olympic Champion Jenny Rissveds. After a long absence of racing she chose MSA as her come back to World Cup racing- not an easy track to start out with. Her goal was to not chase a specific result but finish her first World Cup race of the season with a good feeling. A crash right after the start took her out of contention from the very beginning. Starting the race dead last was a huge mental test for her. This test she managed to handle with pride and even though her 30th place is way below what she is able to do, this first race was a successful step forward to getting back to where she was. The most important thing is that she is really happy to be back racing.
Olympic Champion Jenny Rissveds on her way back to World Cup racing.
Just happy to be back racing- Olympic Champion Jenny Rissveds.
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|