August 23, 2005

News from the 2004 Mountain Bike World Championships

Rain of Medals for SCOTT!
Nino Schurter and Florian Vogel The 2004 World Championships, which took place this weekend in Les Gets, France, will be memorable for SCOTT. In total, SCOTT riders came back with six medals: Nino Schurter (CH – Swisspower team) Gold Junior, Florian Vogel (CH – Swisspower team) Bronze U23, Thomas Frischknecht (CH – Swisspower team) Bronze Elite, Nino Schurter + Florian Vogel (CH – Swisspower team) Silver Team Relay, Maya Wloszczowska (Pol – Lotto PZO) Silver Elite woman and Bronze again in the Relay with the rest of the Polish team, Céline Gros (France) Bronze downhill women.

All the medals collected are
heavier than the “Scale”!
Scale Just a few days after its introduction, the “Scale”, the new carbon hardtail from SCOTT, already collected four medals. All the riders who started the race on the incredible 8.8 kg bike, finished on the podium. These excellent results confirm its position as a true race machine.

Swisspower team – Dream team!
Thomas Frischknecht Without a doubt, the most successful team at the World Championships was the Swisspower team. Led by Thomas Frischknecht, this young and talented group achieved an awesome performance. The story began on the 8th September, when Switzerland took the second place in the Team Relay with Florian Vogel, Nino Schurter (both of the Swisspower team), Ralf Naef and Barbara Blatter. Two days later, 18 year-old Nino Schurter finished as best junior; he won the race by a margin of more than two minutes. His teammate Florian Vogel continued the success story in the U23 category by finishing third. On top of this, Thomas Frischknecht rode a most incredible race and finished third in the Elite men's class.

Frischi, the strongest man
It was raining on Sunday, the terrain was muddy and all of the world's best cross country riders were at the start… Thomas Frischknecht took the lead very quickly and stayed in front for more than 60% of the race….he was simply flying on his “Scale”. Then, bad luck, Thomas had a chain problem and lost his lead. With the strength of one of the best mountain bikers in the world he came back, never loosing his concentration. He faught until the end, passed Paulissen in the last curve and finished in third and picked up the Bronze Medal at the 2004 World Championships.