After the Swiss Epic finished on the weekend, news came from the world’s most successful cross-country team – the Scott-Odlo team have a new team member.
Making a name for yourself as a Swiss mountain bike pro isn’t an easy task. With Nino Schurter leading a super strong nation in the XC discipline, many stay in the shadow of the big stars. Matthias Stirnemann is a rider who has made his way through the field to become a solid top ten rider worldwide. With his 6th place at the XCO World Championships, 5th place at the European Championships and a 4th place at the Mont Saint Anne World Cup, he became the 2016 “Newcomer of the Year.” The 25 year old runner up Swiss Champion was already riding on Scott bikes for the Swiss based MÖBEL MÄRKI team. In 2016 he made a big jump moving him up to 5th place in the world. Only Absalon, Schurter, Marotte and Koretzky are higher ranked at present.
Matthias Stirnemann has made his mark in 2016.
Matthias fits perfectly with the Scott-Odlo team and will relish the opportunity to do more stage races in the future. At the Swiss Epic he’s already shown what he can do, forming aa good team with Nino Schurter, winning two stages and coming 3rd overall.
Schurter and Stirnemann made for a great team, winning two stages at the Swiss Epic.
Stirnemann is excited to join the team with two Olympic champions, “I can look back to my most successful season and I’m super exited to join the best XC team in the world. This is a dream come true- Just what I was hoping for to further develop as an athlete.”
In the prologue starting in Zermatt at 3100 m above sea level Matthias suffered a flat tyre taking the team out of contention for the overall victory quite early. But in the following stages the duo got stronger from day to day. With the victory in the longest stage of 96km and 2900 meters of climbing to Verbier, Schurter & Stirnemann reached 3rd in the overall ranking. The BMC team with Lukas Flückiger and Reto Underhand were the dominating squad. They won 3 stages and the overall. Second place went to Centurion-Vaude with Jochen Käss and Daniel Geismayr.
The men’s podium on the final day.
More success in Switzerland for the Scott-Odlo team
Scott-Odlo’s second team with the young guns Michiel van der Heijden and Andri Frischknecht also showed their teeth in the well attended “hors category” Swiss Epic. In the last stage they stepped up the podium in a great 5th place. Overall they finished 9th getting quite a lot of well earned UCI world ranking points. On top of it this demanding stage race was a great learning experience for the talented young riders.