Rough weekend at Leogang

With all the excitement we had launching our new race weapon, the racing weekend at the World Cup in Leogang hasn’t been crowned by success. However, the team stays positive and focused, knowing that their time will come.

Leogang, Austria. Early in the week we were finally able to present the new Spark, which the team has been testing and riding since early in the year. Filled with extra motivation and anticipation, we were looking forward to finally race this new weapon.

Unfortunately things went wrong right from the beginning, starting with Friday’s XCC – or in Kate Courtney’s case, three weeks earlier when she crashed at the World Cup in Nove Mesto, injuring herself bad enough to prevent her from rolling up to the start line in Leogang. P10 for Nino Schurter, P16 for Lars Forster and P32 for Andri Frischknecht do not reflect what our athletes and the new bike is capable of.

Imagery: Remi Fabrigue, Michal Cerveny

With the boys’ motivation at its peak, the gun went off Friday night for the short track World Cup (XCC). Right at the start Nino slipped out of the pedal, causing him to be passed by the entire field. On top of this, he also blocked Lars who started right behind him. With Andri also starting at the end of the field, the entire SCOTT-SRAM Team was out of the top 30 on lap one. With little chances to move up, all of them were with the back to the wall before Sunday’ cross-country (XCO) race even started. This placed Nino in an unusual 4th row, starting in 25th place, Lars in 31st and Andri in 34th. These positions made for quite the handicap stepping into the XCO.

Any hopes of a fighting to the front early on were destroyed shortly after beginning. After a lap and a half, Nino was sitting in 19th place. The more the race progressed, the race the faster the Olympic Champion was pushed. At the end, Nino made the best out of the tough situation by finishing 10th.
The victory went very well deserved to Matthias Flückiger. A long awaited first for the Swiss champion.

Although the final result may not have been cause for celebration, Lars Forster was definitely moving in the right direction. After a slow start in P30, he moved through the pack consistently showing some impressively fast lap times, his solid performance landing him in 16th.
Andri Frischknecht fought a tough battle, still missing the step ahead to move up in the ranks. Starting in P34, Andri rode a steady race finishing in 32nd.

Although the results at Leogang are far from being exciting, the team remains positive, maintaining an optimistic outlook for the remainder of the season.

The hard work of the athletes coupled with the fast new Spark will pay off sooner or later. In racing, it sometimes takes some patience to be successful. No reason to panic.

With Kate Courtney’s return to the World Cup in Les Gets early in July, the team will be complete and in full swing once more.

ALL-NEW SCOTT Spark RC

For many years now, the Spark family of bikes here at SCOTT has been a cornerstone of our success in the mountain bike industry. From World Cup win to World Cup win, the Spark RC has been a constant at the head of the race; be it men’s or women’s, XCO or marathon stage racing.

With a total of 27 World Cup victories, 6 World Champion titles, 1 European Champion, plenty of National Champion titles and 2 shiny golden medals, it’s fair to say that the Spark RC is the most successful XC race bike out there. For 2022, the all-new Spark is set to continue this heritage on race tracks all around the world for years to come, with several key updates including the integrated shock, semi-integrated cables, updated geometry and extended travel to 120mm. The all important second water bottle mount for marathon and stage racing is also a game changer.

Discover the all-new Spark RC and take a deep dive into the detailed spec of the European Champion’s ride below.