Despite unfortunate circumstances, the Triple Crown Champion claimed an impressive 27th World Cup victory to move himself back into the No. 1 position.
Albstadt, Germany, May 20th. Difficult race conditions, an unusual starting position and enormous pressure made N1NO Schurter riding at his best. Once again, the Olympic Champion proved to be unstoppable. His first World Cup win this season and his 27th belongs somehow to one of his greatest victories.
After an unfortunate season start with a lost sprint final at the World Cup kick-off in Stellenbosch, South Africa and a disappointing Cape Epic experience, SCOTT-SRAM’s Olympic Champion came to Albstadt with high expectations, and also huge pressure. By winning three european races in three weeks recently, N1NO felt good for the showdown with the world’s best on the 2020 World Championships race track.
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But things seemed to go wrong from the beginning: The premiere of the World’s first ever Short Track Race- a qualifying event for the XCO starting order held two days prior in Albstadt, was a great promotion for the sport and a huge succes. But unfortunately not for N1NO- he faced a mechanical straight after the start which forced him to drop out of the race. N1NO’s perspectives for sunday’s race declined rapidly- missing the Top 16 in the short track – the so called XCC – meant he had to start from the third row in the start grid of Sunday’s “big race”. It’s been the first time in 12 years N1NO was not able to start from the front row.
However, N1NO did not wait long to show who’s (still) the boss. He gave it all straight from the start line and managed to move forward in no time. On the very first climb on the start loop he already attacked out of 5th position to get quickly a 5 second lead over the rest of the competition. This attack was not to get away this early. He just wanted to demonstrate that the bunch should count on him that day.
The UCI MTB World Championships will take place in Albstadt in 2020- the crowds and the track are already champion-worthy today! With his 3rd win a row in Albstadt, N1NO Schurter underlined his dominating role in XC.
Photos: Jochen Haar & Armin M. Küstenbrück
A lead group of five with Matthias Flückiger, Sam Gaze, Mathieu van der Poel and Maxime Marotte and N1NO set an enormous pace the first few laps. First victim was Matthias Flückiger with a flat tire, second one World Cup leader Same Gaze, who first tried to ride away solo, but soon after overdid it. Frenchman Stephane Tempier joined the lead group and it was also him who was the only one to be able to follow N1NO when the champion set a higher pace two laps to go.
Over 10.000 spectators witnessed N1NO Schurter’s World Class performance.
With regards to tactics, N1NO was riding at his best. Also physically he looked stronger than ever. While others made mistakes here and there on the very demanding track, he had things under control at all times. Also thanks to the right tire choice, which was a very difficult decision prior to the race. All riders chose the SCOTT Scale 900 RC World Cup with a Reverb dropper seat post, a Maxxis Ardent Race in the front and a Maxxis prototype tire in the back.
What a relief! N1NO Schurter enjoys the moment finishing the line first with a 16 sec gap.
The Men’s Elite podium of Albstadt- Nino Schurter (1st), Stephane Tempier (2nd), Mathieu van der Poel (3rd), Maxime Marotte (4th), Jordan Sarrou (5th).
Nino Schurter: “The 27th World Cup victory is one of the sweeter ones. I work the best when I’m under pressure. Going into this race I was a bit with the back to the wall, but I can’t ask for more the way things went. The mind, the body, the bike and the tire choice was excellent. Happy to be back on top of both- the World Cup podium and World Cup overall.”
There is no time to rest for SCOTT-SRAM. With a small 15 points lead over Matthieu van der Poel, N1NO Schurter will travel to Nove Mesto, Czech Republik as the leader of the World Cup. There will be again a Short Track race Friday evening, first time live on Red Bull TV.
Andri Frischknecht somehow had a pretty strange race at his XCO comeback. Starting out of 49th position, he managed to move up all the way to 8th place right after the start. However, soon after he payed for his effort and went all the way back to 49th position. Towards the end he got going again to finish in 33rd place.
Andri Frischknecht: “After my knee injury I’m just happy to be back in racing. But this sure was a strange race. Some guys I saw three times in the race. At the start when I passed them, again when they passed me and again when I came back.”
Left: Matthias Stirnemann, 35th. Right: Dutch Champion Michiel van der Heijden, 58th.
The Winner’s bike- SCOTT SCALE RC 900 World Cup
Albstadt is a course for a hard tail. N1NO and the entire team road the SCOTT SCALE 900 RC World Cup, all bikes were set up with Rock Shox Reverb dropper posts. Find more Specs and equipment on the team website.
N1NO’s winning SCOTT SCALE RC 900 World Cup.
