MTB world’s: Swiss sweep junior cross-country podium

By Fred Dreier

With a single Swiss flag hanging from the tallest of three flagpoles, a trio of Switzerland’s top young talents stood as their country’s national anthem — Sweitzerpsalm — played in honor of their sweep of the world junior cross-country championships on Thursday. Standing proudly in the crowd, 1996 world champion Thomas Frischknecht — Switzerland’s elder statesman of mountain-bike racing — couldn’t contain his tears.

“We have a lot of riders who are already accomplished by the time they come to the junior level,” explained Frischknect, as to why his country’s junior ranks are so deep. “We get good people working with the young athletes, and because traveling to races is not that big of an issue, they can do big stuff.”

It was sixteen-year old Mathias Flückiger who did the biggest stuff during the race — the fourth cross-country championship event of the 2006 world mountain-bike championships in Rotorua, New Zealand. Flückiger crossed the line with a 51-second gap on teammate, Martin Fanger, to add rainbow stripes to his 2006 campaign, which also includes a win at the Swiss and European mountain-bike championships.

“I can’t really appreciate it at the moment,” said Flückiger. “I’m still in shock.”

Flückiger, Fanger and their compatriot Pascal Meyer sprung to the front of the junior race on the first of four laps, and separated themselves on the lowest flanks of the course’s climb. Clad in the familiar red and white kits of Switzerland, the three team-time-trialed for two laps before Flückiger attacked for the win.

Frenchman Alexis Vuillermoz, Italian Cristian Cominelli and Australian Daniel Braunsteins tried to pull back the Swiss duo, but the effort proved fruitless. With Swiss Severin Disch finishing in seventh place, Switzerland placed four riders within the top-10.

This is Flückiger’s first full season racing mountain bikes. The pint-sized rider got his start racing bicycles on the road eight years ago, and moved into mountain-bike racing from cyclo-cross. He placed eighth at the 2006 world cyclo-cross junior championships in Zeddam, the Netherlands.

“He is fast and very motivated,” said Frischknecht of his countryman. “I was doing a local race on Saturday here and was riding with him and he was staying on my wheel.”

Flückiger, who is a mainstay on Switzerland’s Swisspower Cup series, frequently finds himself racing against Fanger and Meyer. Fanger consistently beat Flückiger during the 10-race series, and finished the 2006 series ranked second, with Flückiger in third.

Swiss domination is almost expected at a world mountain-bike championship and this year is no different. After four cross-country events, the Swiss have landed on the podium six times and won the opening team relay race.Race NotesAmerican Eric Carter (Mongoose) suffered a costly crash during his qualifying run for the Four-cross on Wednesday, August 23. The American champ lost his footing in a high-speed corner and flew head over heels over his bicycle. Carter still squeaked into the finals, finishing 35th out of 36. The finals run on Friday, August 25.Czech Michal Prokop (Author) was the fastest to qualify for the four-cross finals. Prokop, who has already claimed the 2006 World Cup overall with one race remaining, bested American Brian Lopes by .25 seconds.American Jill Kintner qualified in first in the women’s Four-cross. The reigning World Cup and world champ bested Anneke Beerten of the Netherlands by just over a second.

2006 World Mountain-Bike Championships
Junior men’s cross-country
1. Mathias Flückiger (Swi), 1:19:37
2. Martin Fanger (Swi), at 0:51
3. Pascal Meyer (Swi), at 1:22
4. Alexis Vuillermoz (F), at 3:00
5. Cristian Cominelli (I), at 3:15
6. Daniel Braunsteins (Aus), at 3:27
7. Severin Disch (Swi), at 3:55
8. Freddy Betremieux (F), at 4:06
9. Henrique Avancini (Bra), at 4:29
10. Piotr Brzozka (Pl), at 4:31
11. Fabien Canal (F)at 4:40North Amercans
23. Alex Harvey (Can), at 7:09
27. Chris Barton (USA), at 8:02
29. Tristen Uhl (USA), at 8:42
31. Francis Morin (Can), at 9:22
38. Travis Livermon (USA), at 11:43
41. Cody Canning (Can), at 12:59

FILED UNDER: Mountain