April 23, 2007

Nino Schurter takes the lead

In the first World Cup race of the season, at Houffalize, Belgium, 250 athletes raced in the best weather conditions. The course was hard and much strength was needed to secure the best possible start position for the next World Cup. An awesome show was put on by Swisspower rider Nino Schurter, who finished in 6th place. For much of the race he was fighting alongside Danish rider Jakob Fuglsang for the U23 leader's jersey. On the last lap, Nino was able to cross the finish line seven seconds in front of Jakob, therefore securing the jersey! As the third Swiss rider, Thomas Frischknecht finished 18th. Because of a back injury, unfortunately Florian Vogel wasn’t able to finish and dropped out early in the race. Last but not least, the team finished fourth place in the overall team ranking. With start numbers 154 and 155, Patrick Gallati and Till Marx were able to ride into around 70th position. Because of a crash, Till finished 88th. Patrick lost a lot of time and places while repairing a mechanical on his bike and finished 158th. Unfortunately, no World Cup points... looking forward to the next opportunity. The day before, in the Junior category, Matthias Rupp put in a great effort in his race. He didn’t get the best start, but picked off riders during the entire race to reach eighth place in the end! The elite race was won by Antonio Hermida, with Julien Absolon second and Christoph Sauser third. U23 World Champion Nino Schurter made a great effort at Houffalize, finishing sixth. Frischi likes to ride tricky sections on his Spark. Matthias Rupp, the youngest Swisspowerteam rider, managed an eighth place finish. The Scale and Spark team bikes are ready to race!