Silver & Gold – What a way to start World Championships!

The start to the 2019 World Championships in Mont Saint Anne, Canada could not have been better. In the Team Relay opening event Switzerland with N1NO Schurter claims the World Champion title and Team USA with Kate Courtney wins the Silver medal.

Mont Saint Anne, Canda. The World Championships at the most classic of all international mountain bike races (World Cup Races since 1991 and the 3rd World Championship in MSA) started with a boom! With the reigning World Champions SCOTT-SRAM had two athletes in the race. And both scored highly!

If Switzerland leads out with their best team they are hard to beat in the Team Relay! With Nino Schurter (elite men), Jolanda Neff (elite women), Joel Roth (U23 men), Sina Frei (U23 women) and Janis Baumann (junior) they sure had an almost unbeatable squad. However, Team USA was a very strong contender and after Kate Courtney sent USA rider Keegan Swenson into last lap in first position, N1NO as the last rider of Switzerland only took over the lead in the very last climb.

While Switzerland has now an all time record of 7 World Champion titles, the Silver medal of Team USA was only the second one after 2007 where they won bronze. 

Both N1NO and Kate had the fastest lap times in their category and therefore were key to the success of their team performing so well.

N1NO certainly happy about the outcome stated: “I can’t ask for more to start this World Championship. Not only did I feel great on this course which I really love, with the success of our National Team I was able to give a good vibe to our team spirit here at the Swiss house.” He also added: “The track is loose and worn out more than ever. Besides the very technical descents it’s now the climbs who really take a lot of skills.”

Also Kate Courtney is happy about the last test before Saturdays race:

“The team relay was a fantastic start to World Championships! I was very proud to represent my country in the relay and be part of a strong team USA. We were able to ride to a silver medal – the first team relay medal for the USA since 2007. I am hopeful that all of our athletes will take this positive momentum forward and represent our country with pride and pazazz over the next few days of competition.”

“My new red SCOTT Spark is sure to bring a few extra spark-lewatts to the start line for me this weekend” Kate says. “I am so grateful to be riding this bike on the technical and demanding course here in MSA. With steep climbing and very rocky descending, the twinlock suspension allows me to maximize every section and feel comfortable pushing my limits with equipment I can trust.

This season, technical skills have been a huge focus for me. As a rider who started a bit later, it’s been a process for me to feel strong and confident on World Cup features and to be able to ride aggressively on tougher terrain. Thanks to the mentorship and belief of my team manager Thomas Frischknecht and my new equipment this season, I’ve made more progress than ever this year. I’m going faster and, possibly more importantly, having more fun every time I get out on my bike!”

SCOTT-SRAM’s SPARK RC 900 LTD

SCOTT-SRAM athletes race a new Limited Edition, SCOTT’s 2020 Spark RC 900 World Cup LTD frame kit, at the MTB World Championships in Mont-Saint-Anne. The exclusive frame kit, which will be on sale soon, comes with several custom features (check all details of the inline model below). Keeping the ride smooth, a RockShox SID Ultimate fork is paired with a custom RockShox NUDE 3-mode rear shock via our TwinLoc Suspension System.

Find all details for the lighter wheel sets with its 30mm wide rims here.

Specs of the inline Spark RC 900 WC N1NO LTD frame kit:

FRAME: HMX Carbon Frame, 1 by only
FORK: RockShox SID Ultimate RLC3 Air – Custom Charger 3-Modes Damper with low Speed Adj. – 15x110mm Maxle Stealth / Tapered steerer / Lockout / Reb. Adj.
TRAVEL: Lockout – 70 – 100mm
REAR SHOCK: RockShox NUDE RLC3 Trunnion – SCOTT custom w. travel / geo adj. – 3 MODES: Lockout-Traction Control-Descend – low Speed Ad.j / Reb. Adj.

Accessories

Rising EP.4 with Katey Courtney – Full Send

Sometimes in order to go forward you need to go back. What has that meant for Kate Courtney this season? Mastering even the simplest essentials like cornering and technique so that no matter what gets thrown at her on the race track, she is able to punch back with confidence and strength. Full Send dives into the technical progress Kate has focused on this season on the SCOTT-Sram team and under the wing of Thomas Frischkneckt. Read the full story (…)