August 23, 2005

Frischi's Story: 2004 Olympic Games Athens

FrischknechtThe Olympic Games are the most spectacular event in my sporting career. It was before Athens and will stay like this forever. It doesn't depend on the result. It’s a great success just to be there. It’s awesome to be a part of it. The importance and size of the event built up a pressure that either makes you strong or makes you fail. For myself I can say that some of my best performances were at the Games.

In Atlanta I won the silver medal and then finished the 234 km road race less than 24 hours later. In Sydney I was in the lead solo for three quarters of the race until my legs cramped up and I fell back to sixth place. In Athens it was the opposite. I was lying on the ground in the first turn but then moved up from 34th to seventh place.

For the first time I was not going into the Olympics as one of the big favourites. Especially since we had Christoph Sauser on the Swiss squad, the attention was more on him this time. But when we were pre-riding the difficult course, it was clear to myself and also to my rivals, Frischi is back in the game. On one side the course layout suited me. But more importantly, I had the best equipment for this particular course!

The terrain was very loose, all gravel and sand that gave no traction at all. Tire pressure and tread were the keys to getting around the tight turns. Knowing about the importance of this requirement, I had special wheels built for the Olympics, based on tubulars. The tubulars are hand built by Dugast in Holland, who are known to make the best speciality tubulars for Cyclo-Cross, Track or road races like Paris- Roubaix. They use a Ritchey tire, cut the sidewalls off, grind the inside out and glue the tread onto handmade cotton tubulars that are about 45 millimeters wide. I then glue the tubular onto a super light Ritchey carbon fibre tubular rim. I worked on this project over the past 15 month and since I pulled out these wheels only two weeks before the games, I had them exclusively.

Why all this work? A tubular can be ridden with very low pressure, which gives great traction. In Athens this was key! Tubulars are also very puncture-resistant and the wheels with the carbon rim come in at an excellent weight. Together with the new 970 gram SCOTT Scale carbon fibre frame that was also made specifically for the Olympics I had one of the lightest bikes. The result was that in training no one was able to follow me on the descents and I was able to ride some steep hills where others had to get off the bike. My bike was the most talked about and I started to dream about a medal again...

As you know it did not come together, as I crashed just 10 seconds into the race. I had a good start taking the first left hand turn in about 6th position. I saw a corridor on the left and tried to move up. Right at that moment, Bart Brentjens moved over to the left and pushed my handlebar into the barriers. My bar end hooked up and the next thing I know, I’m on the ground. When I got going again I was in 34th position out of 50. Battling with the hippies for position! The dream was over, the hopes were gone.

I figured I better try to enjoy my last two hours at the Olympics instead of getting too pissed off. And after two laps I started to get going again. After a third of the race I was in 20th place, after two thirds I was in 14th. I had one goal left, finishing in top ten or maybe even get a diploma for top eight, though that was still more than two minutes up the road. I gave it all and had some of the fastest lap times towards the end of the race. The result was a fine seventh place which is the best I could deliver.

Sure, the result sure was not as good as it could have been. But I’m very pleased with my performance and will keep the ten days in Athens in my best memories. And that’s what counts!