The racing weekend in Snowshoe was overshadowed by a severe crash of N1NO Schurter in the XCC, which sidelined him for the weekend. Thanks to a great ride of Lars Forster, we managed to finish off the weekend on a positive note.
Snowshoe-West Virginia-USA, July 31st 2022. Round 7 of the UCI World Cup started with shock. In Friday’s XCC N1NO crashed head first down a wooden flyover bridge. The 4-meter fall looked awfully bad. At first things didn’t look good at all for the World Champion, but while the man of steel got bruised up heavily, he miraculously walked away with no broken bones. This crash could have been so easily the end of the season for the leader of the World Cup. Instead, it looks like he can shake off the bruises as he’s already looking forward to next weekend’s World Cup races in Mont Saint Anne, Canada. The clock is ticking for getting back to 100% preparing for World Championships.
Side note:
In the 20 years racing for the SCOTT-SRAM team, this is only the second time N1NO was missing a race. Many years back in La Bresse, France, he once missed a race because of a stomach bug.
Imagery: Michal Cerveny & Will Nelson
Time to hold up the torch for Kate, Lars & Andri. While the women started in the dry and finished in the wet, the men’s race was held under apocalyptic conditions. Pouring rain turned the track into highly demanding affair. Lot’s of crashes and mechanicals created a very interesting race with winners and losers. One that was definitely on the winners’ side was Lars Forster, even though it didn’t look like it after the start. Both Lars and Andri came out of the block in miserable positions of P45 and P48, but eventually Lars found the legs he was hoping for for so long.
Two factors played an important role for Lars. First of all, he has great memories of winning his first World Cup race on this track in 2019, and secondly he is a master when it comes to riding in severe conditions. He picked up position after position throughout the whole race. Half way through the race he was sitting in P17, 1:25 behind the leaders. With an incredibly strong finale he closed the gap to the winner, David Valero, to just 35 seconds, which moved him up to a well-deserved 7th place. It’s a pity he missed the train at the beginning of the race. Who knows what Lars would have been capable of doing with a better start?
“Today I finally found the legs I was waiting for for so long. I loved the severe racing. Only that I most likely missed the podium with an awful bad start. This race sure builds confidence for the next races to come. “
Kate Courtney
Highly motivated racing in front of her home crowd, Kate’s race started very ambitiously racing in the lead group for the first two laps. After fading back a bit she recovered well holding on to a solid 10th place. On another positive note we saw her doing very well in the muddy conditions, which has been something where she showed some weakness in the past. Learning and improving step by step.
Andri Frischknecht
Even Andri likes these severe conditions like Lars, he struggled coming around after the difficult start. He managed to move up through the field, but not as high he was hoping for. A slow flat in the finale did the rest to a fairly disappointing P24.
SCOTT-SRAM – Moments from Snowshoe
Check out our latest short movie: Behind the scenes of SCOTT-SRAM.
Keeping the team spirit high, we are looking forward to next weekend’s World Cup in Canada.
Imagery: Michal Cerveny & Will Nelson
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