With Andri Frischknecht winning his first medal in the top league and Nino Schurter showing great spirit despite a broken chain, Swiss Nationals made for a good raceday for SCOTT-SRAM.
Andermatt, June 25th. For someone that can call himself number 1 in the world, defending the national title after winning this title already 7 times, it’s only about winning gold. However, if things don’t go the way they should, it’s about more than just winning. It’s about showing good moral and team spirit. N1NO Schurter showed once more how big of a champion he is while the youngster of the team Andri Frischknecht stepped up to the podium winning the bronze medal.
Despite a mechanical the champ showing good spirit.
Images: EGO-Promotion
In the current World Cup standings 8 Swiss are seated in the top 18. In no other country are the medals at nationals hanging higher than in Switzerland. Going for a medal is only business as usual for one racer- N1NO Schurter. All the other Swiss pro’s are battling like it was a World Cup, not only for the medals but also to make the national team selection for this years World Championship in Lenzerheide.
Left: Handshake at the start of the defending and the new Swiss Champion Matthias Flückiger
Right: N1NO pacing through the field
In the second lap when the lead group still contained all the favourites, N1NO’s chain snapped on a steep climb while riding in first position. This miss-happening opened up the chance for those who placed second behind N1NO for the past 6 years. Lucky N1NO! He not only had to run to the tech zone not too far, Yanick the mechanic showed a quick chain exchange in champion style which kept the champion in the race with only 1:04 down to the leaders.
A new race had started. Fortunately SCOTT-SRAM youngster Andri Frischknecht stepped up. After a decent start he moved up together with Lars Forster towards mid race to close the gap to the leading group with Matthias Flückiger, Florian Vogel and Nicola Rohrbach.
Andri Frischknecht stepping up continuing a very strong month of racing.
Like a champion N1NO did not just continue with a training ride. In the new circumstance he showed his teeth not giving up. At the end of lap two he was in 16th sitting in position but soon after moved back into top ten. With the fastest lap times he got closer and closer to the leaders which made for an exciting race that was very inspiring for the spectators.
N1NO chasing instead of leading.
At the end it came down to a sprint finish between Matthias Flückiger and European Champion Florian Vogel. The sprint was as tight as the last World Cup sprint in Nove Mesto with the better end for Flückiger. Andri going into the last lap in 3rd place had a 27 second gap over his fast moving mentor N1NO. At the finish this gap was down to a second and only 17 seconds behind gold! Who knows if this was a World Championship and not his team mate in front of him, N1NO maybe could of taken 3rd place just as well. But the champion he is, he was just as happy for Andri to make his breakthrough winning his first elite medal at nationals.
3rd and 4th place finish for Andri and Nino- only 16 seconds behind gold.
Matthais Stirnemann did feel the effect of the altitude and was not able to get into the top ten. He finished 13th while our cyclo-cross specialist Marcel Wildhaber who used nationals as part of his cycle-cross season prep had a solid ride to 19th place.
Matthias Stirnemann (left) and Marcel Wildhaber (right).
N1NO was in good spirits after the race joking, “Well, now I need to win the other Championships in Switzerland. Sure, bad to loose the title in such a way but I’m very happy with my performance.” Indeed, he might of lost the title but surely won many hearts for a great show he put up. Andri Frischknecht happy with his first elite podium placing, “This was a nearly perfect ride for me. It took quite some juice to close the gap to the lead group and last lap I had Nino’s breath in my neck, but I’m super stoked stepping on the podium.”
This was a nearly perfect ride for me. It took a quite some juice to close the gap tho the lead group and last lap I had Nino’s breath in my neck, but I’m super stoked stepping on the podium.
The World Cup goes into the next round in two weeks in Val di Sole Italy, followed by the Valnord, Andorra World Cup.
Florian Vogel (silver)- Matthias Flückiger (gold) Andri Frischknecht (bronze).
The choice at Swiss Championships: SCOTT SCALE 900 RC World Cup
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.
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