(report by team manager Bobby Behan)

(photos: gary perkin)

Today was personal for many reasons Personal for Susi’s mum, Benno, the team and I. Corina(Susi’s mum) has been there forever, Benno has been his mechanic since 2003 and Susi has been a great friend to me since 1999. We have seen the marathon world championship, two world cup overall titles, the thirteen world cup wins, but until today no world cross country win, something that has eluded Susi, but a title he truly deserved.

Susi knew it! We knew! It just had to happen. There was an extra air of nervous positivity in the team this week, from myself to Susi’s methodical mechanic Benno, to our other great mechanic Ryan and the fabulous soigneur that is Claire. Race day and it felt like a normal world cup day from the outside looking in, but from the inside we were all motivated and really believed Susi was going to win! There was that something extra within the team that was hard to describe, but even Susi knew it and after the race said how he could feel it in the team and in him. It was like “right we have lost this thing too many times, that is not going to happen anymore”.

Then there was the new cutting edge prototype Epic. That was the extra motivation. Anybody who knows Susi, knows he is driven by technological innovation and Specialized never fails to satisfy the Swissman. Dropping 700 grammas from any bike is huge but from the already great Epic, represents a huge technological advancement.

Liam had the books stacked up against him. Starting in 78th was going to be hard. A top twenty would have been awesome, given Liam’s recent form on Tuesday in the team relay where he posted the fastest lap, but to expect more would have been too much. Personally, I felt he had the form to do very well, but a positioning on the grid, which limited his chances.

The young Jakob Fungslgang took the pace out, but to me it was not as fast as expected. It was almost as if the field were too nervous to commit too soon. On lap two and the shake-up was already in session with Christoph, Florian Vogel and Frederik Kessiakoff setting the pace at the front with defending champion Julien Absalon not far behind. Further back and Liam was fighting the crowds, but making headway represented by a 50th position.

Lap two and Freddy was suffering, while the most recent world cup winner (Fortwilliam, Scotland) Vogel and Susi were sharing the lead. It was going to be a two man race, with Absalon also struggling. Meanwhile Liam Killeen had moved up to twentieth. There seemed like a jet engine was propelling Liam’s Epic.

I was busy texting a few key people including Specialized founder Mike Sinyard. Lap three and Vogel was 20’’ adrift and Susi looked smooth. The one quote nobody got, and at the time I did not want to “count my chickens before they were hatched”, so I decided not to mention it to anybody! On the slow gravel climb where I was located early on in the first lap, I had the opportunity to run beside Susi and give him key information and lots of encouragement, he turned to me and said “Bobby I am in standby mode”. There and then I just knew – nobody is going to touch Susi today. As the laps progressed the margin got bigger and bigger. Susi today was in a class of his own. It was poetry in motion. He won by nearly three minutes!

Susi had the ride of the day, but Liam Killeen had another one that had journalists and photographers “flabber gasted”. Liam was on the chase for eight and then when he rode through that group and the fight for fifth commenced. Liam was riding on another level today. I was absolutely psyched for Liam, because he pulled out such an inspirational performance. Another lap and bronze was within grasps, but fourth position from a start position of 78th – more than expected.

Liam and Susi were also a wave of team motivation. Liam said it was huge “the team support was massive – the shouting the words of encouragement, just kept driving me further. The team moral and atmosphere is super high”. Everybody’s voices were gone and the tears in Benno’s, Claire’s and my eyes just reflected how happy we were to have Susi finally attaining that title he has always deserved.

The questions at the end about the new bike were endless and everybody wanted to know more. Susi summed it up nicely … “on the climbs it’s like a fighter jet taking off and on the descents it’s like a jumbo jet landing”. Susi knows that today “I was the best rider in the world, riding the best bike in the world”!

This entry was posted on Monday, June 23rd, 2008 at 5:52 am and is filed under categories: Chrisoph Sauser 2008 Season, Christoph Sauser, Switzerland, Uncategorized, World Cup Races and tags: , Christoph Sauser, XC Mountain Bike Champs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.