Christoph Sauser

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    The lightest certified helmet in the world, worn by 2008 UCI World XC Champion Christoph Sauser...

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S-Works Epic

Christoph is the current UCI Marathon World Champion, a former World Cup overall winner, and Olympic medalist. Following is the story of his sporting background, told from his point of view.

Christoph's personal website is www.sauserwind.com.

"I grew up in a sport oriented family so I had a lot of support and encouragement to participate in many different sports from a young age. Some of my favorite sports when I was young were: rollerhockey, skiing, football and wrestling.

As a child I rode my bike a lot, but only back and forth to school. For me the bike was for transport and not really for pleasure. But I always appreciated that my bicycle was for me an efficient and independent form of transport.

When I saw a mountain bike the first time I got very excited as I could see the big potential of riding off road and having fun on the technical downhills. Before bikes came out with the triple chainring, climbing the steep trails to get to the top of the very fast downhills would have been impossible.

Since I had a long history in competitive sport it was natural for me to wonder what it would be like to race mountain bike. In '91 I found some information on a big mountain bike race in Switzerland called the Grand raid Cristalp. It looked like it was going to be a fun event for my first mountain bike competition. That race is a beautiful ride in the alps with a lot of competitors and for me that was a great experience. So I was excited to race a few more races in '91 and '92.

One night in a bar a friend of mine challenged me to apply for a racing license, and he even offered me to find a team to ride for. I started the '93 season as a member of the Parkpre team. It had just started that year and was perfectly managed. I raced for the Parkpre team for the first five years of my career.

In 1998 a big dream came through and I signed my first contract with a international team, Diamondback. That year was also the first time I stepped on a world cup podium, I won the U23 Euro Champs, plus finished second at worlds in the same category. I was very happy with my position on the team, but unfortunately the sponsorship situation for the next season was a little bit cloudy.

Lucky for me I had an offer from the number one team in the world in the name of Volvo-Cannondale at the end of the season. This of course was something I was very excited about and I had four great years on this team until 2003.

At that time Volvo pulled out of mtb-racing, but with Siemens-Cannondale I found another great team for the following 3 years, which was controlled under a completely different management. Only the bike was more or less the same.

Now I am going into the 4th year with Specialized Factory Racing team. We are a bunch of great people with the focus of racing and professionalism, but having lots of good fun next to it. With Specialized as such an innovative company we have the very best brand in our hands for winning races and being well promoted. We are Specialized!"

Biggest achievements:

Cross Country:
World Champion Italy 2008
Olympic Bronze Medalist Sydney 2000
World Cup Champion Overall 2004+2005
14 World Cup Wins
Vice World Champion 2005 and 2006, 3rd. 2001
Vice Word Cup Overall Champion 2002, 2003, 2008
6 Times Swiss Champion
European Champion U23 1998
Vice World Champion U23 1998

Marathon:
World Champion 2007
European Champion 2007

Achievements

2011 UCI XC Marathon World Champion

Stats

Val di Sole, World Cup

August 2, 2010

1 start plus 6 laps, 32km,1.56h racing time

63th place, 12min off winner Nino Schurter

Had a good week here in Val di Sole which was all about recovering and only training a little.

Wait, not everything went smooth. On the drive up here to Val di Sole we got rear ended just 20km before reaching our hotel. My brand new Multivan "butt" got damaged quite a bit, but most importantly nobody got injured seriously. Just the passenger lady of the small Dacia car

needed a ambulance rescue. But I think it was more the shock, since she was buckled up and did not hit the window.

The race then was not cool at all. I was so much of suffering for the first 3 laps. I hardly could not see straight. My body was somehow not on, even I felt nervous and good during the warm up. I could not eat, drink or sweat, but what you save you have left towards the end.

Suddenly I felt switched on, left Burry and Milatz behind, and Kulhavy only 10seconds away, which would have been 6th place. Unfortunately would have been... on a sharp right hander I hit my rear derailleur on a rock and the thing broke into pieces.

I was walking or freewheeling towards the tech zone. Many thanks to Todd who gave me a big push. It is great to have such good team mates out there!!

My tech zone stop took some time. New derailleur, derailleur hanger and chain. Unfortunately it was more "handicraft" build together, and I only had a few gears for finishing my last lap. But really that was was not a big deal any more.

By the way the course layout was not close like the Wold Champs 2008 any more. Even it would have, I would not won today anyway.

My head now is really focussed on the Marathon World Champs, which will take place next Sunday in Germany. I am thinking of this race since weeks. The course is really suiting me.

Lots of up and down, left and right. Won Euro Champs a few years back there.

Stats for Christoph Sauser are coming soon.
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