Victory in the Face of Defeat!

With another outstanding performance Nino Schurter showed his true character on the hunt for win 34. Meanwhile Andri Frischknecht delivered his best ever World Cup race finishing 8th.

Nove Mesto, Czech Republic, May 16th 2022. In one of the most thrilling MTB races in recent memory (and maybe ever!), Nino Schurter walked away as the winner in the eyes of the fans, even though he did’t finish first. His “never give up till the finish line” attitude was a lesson for life and impressed in so many ways.

Simultaneously, Andri Frischknecht also believed in his chance for a Top 10 World Cup finish, which he achieved in style with a career-best 8th place.

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Imagery: Michal Cerveny

Tom Pidcock won the World Cup in Nove Mesto in the final sprint ahead of Vlad Dascalu and thus repeated his triumph from the previous week. The story of the day is probably not Tom Pidcock’s World Cup victory, but N1NO Schurter’s fabulous race. The 9-time World Champion was in the leading group from the start, which contained Pidcock, Dascalu, Flückiger, Schwarzbauer and Hatherly.

In lap four we saw N1NO trying to reduce the size of the lead group. Knowing his SCOTT SPARK was faster in particular in the rough sections of the track, he went all in over the rock garden. A bit too aggressive he would find out. He caught a rear puncture quite far away from the tech zone. This incident set him back to P20 00:01:10 behind the leaders, who had already written him off.

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Left to right: Anton Cooper (4.), Vlad Dascalu (2.), Tom Pidcock (1.), Nino Schurter (3), Alan Hatherly (5.)
Imagery: Michal Cerveny

Like a true champion, N1NO did not give up and mobilized all his power and focus to make the best out of the situation. At first his goal was to make it back into the top 10. His good legs made him chase down the lead group. What no-one thought to be possible, N1NO conquered in the second to last lap. He made it back to the leaders and immediately showed his ambitions for the win.

In a tight finale against a super strong Vlad Dascalu and Tom Podcock, the World Champion obviously had to let them go. However, N1NO left the rest of the lead group behind finishing in a superb 3rd place. Tom Pidcock repeated his Albstadt win by out sprinting Vlad Dascalu.
Nino Schurter successfully defended the leaders jersey of the 2022 World Cup season ahead of Thomas Pidcock, Vlad Dascalu and Alan Hatherly.

“What a race this was! I felt very strong throughout the race. My mistake which caused the flat took the chance to win, but I’m proud of what I delivered today. It was a self teaching lesson: Never give up until the finish line!”

Nino Schurter
9x World Champion, World Cup Leader 2022
SCOTT-SRAM MTB Racing

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Strong performance of Andri Frischknecht

Andri Frischknecht is also getting more and more into his stride this season. After a strong performance last weekend in Albstadt with a hard-fought 16th place, he was able to go one better at his favorite World Cup in Nove Mesto.
Still struggling with the XCC race Andri had to start once again from far behind. A decent start and a well paced race moved him up close to his goal, finishing in the top 10. His current form is illustrated once again when looking at the data. At the World Cup in Nove Mesto he had 2x the second best and 1x the fastest lap time. This results in a superb 8th place finish. His best ever World Cup finish! Now it’s time to figure out how to start closer to row 1.

“Last year in Nove Mesto, I fought hard but a broken chain on the start dashed my hopes of a good result. This year, I finally got to show what I am capable of when the hard work was rewarded with my best ever World Cup finish. At this point I’d like to thank everybody in my corner for believing in me.”

Andri Frischknecht
SCOTT-SRAM MTB Racing

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Kate Courtney

After a challenging race in Albstadt, Kate Courtney was able to turn things around for a strong fight in Nove Mesto. She raced ambitiously from a fourth row start to an 11th place finish and showed in the final laps of the race that both her fitness and motivation are there. With many big races still to come this season, she has set a strong foundation to continue to build fitness and move closer to her goals.

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Lars Forster

Things have not yet come together for Lars Forster this World Cup Season. After a good start, Lars was riding together with his teammate Andri when a broken seat clamp forced him to stop in the tech zone and have his seat post changed. Bad luck is a part of sport and we continue to support him as he works hard to control what he can.