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Your front-row seat to the wild world of off-road cycling.
Hosted by the team at Stilspoke, The Dirt Dispatch covers the pulse of modern dirt racing — from the high-stakes drama of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup to the uniquely American chaos of the Life Time Grand Prix. Expect sharp insights, athlete interviews, race breakdowns, and behind-the-tape stories you won’t hear anywhere else.
Whether you're a diehard XC fan, gravel obsessive, or just here for the vibes — this is the show that keeps you in the loop and on the gas.
Hello, and welcome to another week of action, the mountain bike world cup.
Speaker 2:The mountain bike world cup.
Speaker 3:The UCI mountain bike world cup. Put the big old fat tires on. I'm confident going in that I could have a good race and possibly win. I just love racing. I love the feel I get, ripping my bike, watching everybody else fall behind me.
Speaker 3:A race like this, like, are in the best field. We're the top athletes in our field. Obviously, it took the best from all over the world to beat me. Who really is the best? Like, put it to the test.
Speaker 4:Go. You know what I'm saying? There's no pulling over. This is just racing fast. Raise your scales there.
Speaker 4:Get through that squeeze there. It's only two inches. You got one second to make it. Let's go.
Speaker 3:Racing will continue to be booming. Kids are interested in it. You don't just do this cause there's nothing else to do. You do it because it's like someday this is gonna be major.
Speaker 2:Frischknecht, welcome to the Dirt Dispatch podcast. I have been lucky enough to do some social media for Scott Tram, and I've seen a of the workings of your team. And I gotta say, it's very impressive. I understand the reputation you have of running probably the best World Cup team. Can you tell us a little bit about how you got here and how you started the team?
Speaker 3:Well, I don't think we're running the best World Cup team. I would not agree on that. But I would say we're running the team with the most bonding since since the existence of this team, or let's say, the the the highest team spirit in a way Mhmm. Of those teams. And that has that has a good reason.
Speaker 3:I grew up when I was 20 years old. I was the first European that went to The United States to raise Norbern Nationals. That was even, like, just, like, when 1990 when the mountain bike the sport of mountain bike basically started to grow or get international. And I was lucky enough to to be in a team that had had this family vibe, the team Ritchie, where I could call my teammates my best friends. We were traveling through The States like a rock band, and, like, everyone was just, like, so close to each other.
Speaker 3:And because we all felt like a rock band traveling, racing, we also had great success with the with that team. I won a couple world championship medals in my early at the age of 20, 21, 22. I was a silver medalist at world championships in in the elite because there was no 23 back then, and won the World Cup at the age of 22 and 23, the overall. And at the same time, we had the women's world champion with Lucy Mathies and the world champion with Hendrik Jemisch. So we were, like, one two in the men's and one in the women's at world championship, for example, in Bromant.
Speaker 3:So we were by far the strongest team with but with the smallest budget. And but we were kind of such a good group of people, together that we because we enjoyed being together, we also performed, at excellence. And I think that that culture, I try to implement as much as possible. Now these days, it's you know, running a show like a World Cup team is not that much fun as it used to be in the early nineties, I have to admit. But whenever possible, I I try to build an atmosphere in the team with the staff where people feel comfortable.
Speaker 3:And and when when that's the case, I think they that's a good foundation foundation to then also perform well.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And is that something you by selecting the staff or by how you interact with the team? Like, what is the actual things you do to build that culture in the sport?
Speaker 3:It's not that simple that you could answer this in in a short sentence. It's it's a puzzle. It's all these many wheels you have to turn and adjust to to to fine tune to get it the way you want it to be. And we also, like, sometimes I'm I'm not on the on the right track and and and need need to adjust. It's it's a constant
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 3:Constant fine tuning to make it the way I would like to have it.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And I guess it's constantly changing as well.
Speaker 3:It's constantly changing as well, especially now it's it's it's changing a lot. Mhmm. And but in my opinion, in a good way because we we come off an era where we were just counting World Cup wins every every season, having Nino Schurter on the team. So on performance side, it was kind of like an easy game for for me or for the team having the best mountain biker in the world on the team that was, like, making sure we get podiums and wins frequently. Now we have a completely different situation, but in a in a very interesting and and and good way too with the younger team.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And how did you select this new generation of riders after Nino? Because I guess you've been knowing Nino's gonna retire for a while, and the riders on the team now have been on the team for a few years apart from Fabio who signed last year. What in a young rider makes you think that they will be a good fit for the team?
Speaker 3:At first, I kind of look at young riders of how they ride in the race, how they move, how they sit on the bike, and how how good their technical skills are.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:Because all the rest the rest you can work on, but the technical skills you kind of have to have at the age when I'm when I'm going out to watch it on the 23 race, then that's what I, I check out first. And then I want to get to know that that person and get to know the personality of that of of a young athlete. So that's what I did with Emily, and that's what I did also with with Bjorn. Yeah. We also had Martin, for example, on the on the team traveling with us to to World Cup races, hoping that he will then stick with Scott and stay with us, and he he almost did.
Speaker 3:He decided then because there was some money involved to go to Specialized. But Okay. So before before I want to get to know the person, and I also want to get the athlete know what they get into. I think that to make them the final decision, I think it's it's only in our benefit if they get to know the team and they get to know the staff and and Yeah. And the the ambiance in the team to hopefully make make the decisions to come and and join the team.
Speaker 3:I don't know. I can't speak for other teams, but these days, they first of all, the teams or those who make selections of riders, they look at numbers. You know?
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 3:This also when when young athletes now apply for for the Scots Ram team, they send in the files with their with their numbers numbers and but I'm not really that interested in that stuff. So I more look at personality, the writing skills, and the rest we I think we can work out.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Because it is definitely a team where you sign riders and then you do develop them, and the riders are often on the team for a lot of years. How how do you work with the riders to develop them? Like, involvement do you have with them?
Speaker 3:I think I leave them a lot of freedom. I'm not a dictator who tells them everything what to do, but I believe by the time an athlete arrives to the elite category and he is kind of on the on the shortlist of my team to join the team, he must have done or she must have done something right. There must be some talent around. But the people who got that athlete to that point has a team around like a coach, has maybe a family or has has worked with people to get them to the point where they actually look attractive for a elite team. So we don't have a coach on the team.
Speaker 3:We don't have a performance coach on the team. We don't have any part of the mechanics and and physios where I think we are top notch on that part. But the rest, I try to leave to the athletes to build some responsibility for themselves to work with people. If if someone needs a nutritionist, nutrition, then then then the athlete should go out and find the right person to work with. I'm not saying we have a nutritionist that's looking after the whole team and everybody has to eat exactly like that our nutritionist is saying.
Speaker 3:Same with the coach. So each athlete on our team has a part of this Team Scott's Ram, which I more see as an infrastructure team in a way to bring them to the races, to support support them at the races with great mechanics, with great equipment, with great physio, and the team that works around at the race. But in between, my athletes, they work with their individual team. Each one has his own coach, his own nutritionist, if there is one needed. I think right now we only have two persons on the team that have a nutritionist.
Speaker 3:If you need a mental coach, sure, go out and find your mental coach, but I'm not supplying a mental coach from the team that then kind of tries to help everyone. So I leave a lot of freedom, and I do this on purpose because I believe, and that's how I built my career. An athlete is like a start up company. And you have to be you you own your own start up company, and that's you, the athlete. Yeah.
Speaker 3:And you have to learn what can I do to be interesting to the market? You know? So each one has to also find out how to work with Instagram, and and we can we can maybe advise here and there and and ask, hey. You could do better here. Or it's not like I leave them absolute freedom.
Speaker 3:I'm still kind of, like, overlooking and say, hey. Maybe you should, try to get, some help there or Mhmm. I don't know. But it's a startup company that each athlete owns, and they should be take over responsibility themselves. What I don't like is, like, road racing, they kind of put the athlete on the bike, and then they tell him with how many watts they have to pedal till the finish.
Speaker 3:Mhmm. Then they get them off the bike. They don't have to do anything but riding a bike.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So and then I think they also get a little bit little bit lost in a way when when the career is over.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So how I started my career, there was basically there was basically everything was in development. The bikes did develop hugely, but also there there was no such thing as a professional mountain bike athlete. You kind of had to find out your own way, how to eat, how to train. I never had a manager my whole career. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Never. I never had a coach my whole career. I trained myself. I have never had a nutritionist. Nothing like that.
Speaker 3:But that gave responsibility then to me that had to find out how to do things. In order do that for two decades, that was then why I learned how to book my flights, how to how to book or how to manage traveling, and and and and all of this helped me to be then a team manager from the day I I I started this team.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And maybe for those who don't know, I I started the team at the age of 32 when I was still racing. I I was still winning world championship medals kind of as a team owner, team mentor, teammate of Nino, and continued racing for six years until I then finished my career in 2008. And the next day after I stopped my active professional career, I was just a team manager and still doing the same thing than before, managing the team.
Speaker 2:And was that something you had set up intentionally because you knew that you were gonna retire or you just were
Speaker 3:super interested in? No. This this all happened just like
Speaker 2:It's happened.
Speaker 3:I I yeah. I followed my my gut feelings and started the team, and that I thought it was cool to it was called the Swiss Power team and and it was me as the only elite rider or, like, with a name. Yeah. And then we kind of tried to build private national team. So we would give all the best talents in men and women, junior and 23, a chance to to work in a professional field.
Speaker 3:So we we try to develop the the best Swiss athletes with a with a professional team that was living a bit of my name, but I kind of and and my know how.
Speaker 2:Mhmm.
Speaker 3:And, yeah, for example, Florian Vogel was on the one of the first members of the team. He went to two Olympics and, won world championship medals and world cups. Nino Schorter was on on the second year. So with Nino, I've been working since 2003, so quite some time now.
Speaker 2:And how how did you meet Nino? What was the origin story there?
Speaker 3:The origin story there was he was just the best of his category, and that's why we picked him. Yeah. Okay. That's this simple.
Speaker 2:And at what point did you know that he was going to be the greatest mountain bike rider?
Speaker 3:I knew it from the moment we had the the very first training camp camp in in February 2003 when he just joined the team. Mhmm. We had a training ride in Tuscany, a training camp, and that's a place where I'm on my home trails. I was leading the tour with with my young teammates on the wheel. The first descent, I went down.
Speaker 3:I didn't go full gas, but, yeah, Nino was the only one that that that was able to stay on my wheel. And then the second descent, I figured it out. I go a bit I try a bit harder and still couldn't couldn't drop him. And then I was like, wow. This this little kid, he was 17 years old, this little kid, he's he's quite fast on the bike.
Speaker 3:And then I went all out on the trail I did thousand times before. And I've been training there with with other pros, elite, at at high level. And and because it was my kind of home turf, nobody could follow, the wheel on on on those trails, on the descents. And I went all out, and he just stayed on my wheel. And then from that moment on, I knew he is something special.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:He had not developed the the the physicals Yeah. As he then developed later on, but his technical skills were there from from the very first moment. And he was just not to say that you can tell at the age of 17 that he becomes Olympic champion and 10 times world champion. That's I I didn't expect him doing that, but I knew from that moment on that he has special skills.
Speaker 2:And have you had that feeling with other riders since then, or has that just been completely a stand alone?
Speaker 3:To be honest, no.
Speaker 2:Has it
Speaker 3:been any other also proved. The results also also proved that he he was something special, and, yeah, he is something special.
Speaker 2:And do you still think that the technical aspect is so important for the racing? Because people say nowadays that everyone's at a good technical level, and you won't win a race through a technical descent or through just your technical ability.
Speaker 3:That is that is probably true because the sport got a whole lot lot more complex. I think back in the days, it was probably easier to make a difference on the descents. Also because back in the days, there was more of a longer descents, basically. Longer loops, longer laps Yeah. And longer climbs and longer descents.
Speaker 3:While now on this mini descents, it's yeah. You may you can probably make two at the maximum three seconds on a descent, and then if the other person has has the legs, we'll close the gap and we'll be back on the wheel.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So where do you think the races are won nowadays?
Speaker 3:It's on the physical side. Yeah. Or I mean, first of all, you have to be super complete now these days. Everyone everyone in the top 20 is a super bike handler. You don't you don't get there anymore without without good riding skills.
Speaker 3:And the rest is then the physical part or I would still say no, most important is the head. Okay. Mental part. Yeah. Because everyone is riding so much at the limit that it's a mental game at the end.
Speaker 3:Physically, it they're all so close together. Technically, they're also very close together, and at the end, it's the mental strength that makes the difference between the winner and and second place.
Speaker 2:And do you think that's the mental strength of, like, just who wants to win more or strategy or who can keep focused and calm, who cannot make mistakes? Like, what part of the mental aspect is it that's so important?
Speaker 3:See, the mental part, mental strength comes in waves too. And it is a lot of it has to do of how you felt the the weeks coming into an important race in your training. How's how's the situation at home with the family, with your girlfriend, with your boyfriend, with with everything around you? And there, I think that the team again comes in place where you you can have only have mental good mental strengths if if the whole package, if your world is just going the way you want it to and you are confident going into a big race, and it's impossible to always keep it that way. You know?
Speaker 3:There's always influence of maybe the weather. You know? Maybe you think you're better in the dry than in the rain, like, here in Laogon. There's, like, just the weather itself itself will decide with 50% are not going into race with with good mental strength, another 50% will do well because they know, hey. This is my chance.
Speaker 3:I'm good in in these conditions. So it's a it's a whole the whole wave of sometimes you are strong in your head because everything is going your way. This is the famous spiral that's either turn going down or or going building up, you know, and it's super hard sometimes to change that.
Speaker 2:Yeah. But both you and Nino have had such long successful careers. You can't always have been racing and had everything go right in the rest of your life. Like, you must be able to take a situation and make it suit you instead of just waiting for the right situation to come.
Speaker 3:Yeah. Well, those races who did where I didn't have the mental strengths, I finished not in the top placing. I it's not like I had a long career. Yes. But also my my ups and downs and races I I should have won and because because of something I wasn't wasn't ready enough in the head to actually come through as as as the winner.
Speaker 3:It takes it takes takes a lot.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I feel looking at from my experience now over over all these years, for women, it's even harder to find that mental strength.
Speaker 2:And why is that?
Speaker 3:There's maybe in a woman's head or even in a woman's body is more going on sometimes than than than than in with with the men's. And and I would say they're they're even more sensitive to to a lot of things that makes them then either mentally strong or mentally mentally weak. That's that's kind of my experience. Women have it even harder to find that that really that confidence going into race and being mentally strong. Or if they do, it doesn't last forever.
Speaker 3:Maybe it lasts for a season, and then they struggle next season. So you you see you see also in the performances of basically all the top women
Speaker 2:in
Speaker 3:a a much more up and down than in the men's field, I think.
Speaker 2:Yeah. That's interesting because I've seen it definitely before where you have a woman do really for one year and then kind of drop off. And sometimes I think it can be kind of attributed to, like, nutrition and eating to some extent, but it's interesting. Or perhaps that it's just the racing is closer in that people don't tend to just dominate the women's field for huge, like, years and years.
Speaker 3:Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And I'm yeah. I mean, I don't know what causes that, if it's a physical thing or a mental thing.
Speaker 3:Well, it's also there. There's there's many reasons that have an effect, and and only one negative effect can already cause a big, big damage. You know, sometimes it's also young athletes 23 developing from late teenager into into a woman. You know? There's, like, with with hormones and and and there's something going on in in in a woman's body that that I think in the men's, it's a little bit less delicate than for for women.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Do you think that there's much of a difference between men and women in how they're treated in the sport, like in terms of how they're paid or how long they're signed on contracts for teams or how many women are signed? Do you think that could have any sort of effect?
Speaker 3:I do believe that our sport is one of the few sports in in the world that has it very, very equal. Not to say it's 100% equal, but but close to be very, very equal. Price money is is the same. Like in road racing, in in in soccer, in in in tennis, you name it. They don't have same price money for men and women.
Speaker 3:We do have it since two decades. I think rider salary, maybe not quite the same, but still with now team rankings and UCI rankings, the points of UCI points of a women count the same as as the ones of a man. There's also there, I think, a very strong balance, between men and women that you not often see in other sports.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And what are your thoughts on women's racing? I read an interview before, and you had a very dismissive answer to that question. But now that you've been in the sport longer and you've been well, longer. You've been in it for a very long time.
Speaker 2:But now that you've seen it develop and seen the women's racing develop, how do you see it comparing to the men's racing?
Speaker 3:Also, are very equal. I think last year, we can say the the women's races were at least not if more interesting to watch than the the men's race. Yeah. It has also something to do that now there is it got a whole lot tighter at the at the front end of the race that you could see women three, four battling for the win until last lap. You know?
Speaker 3:Typically, ten years ago, it was like one woman dominating the whole season and not just, like, in the last lap, basically, from first lap on, and that and that made kind of also that there was no there was not such big of a depth in women's racing than there was in men's racing. Like, in men's racing, if if you look at time gaps, sometimes in Nove Mesto, you're in with the with one minute thirty, you're you're in twentieth down, you're you're in twentieth spot, you know. While in the women's race, one minute thirty separated the first from the second. Yeah. So it was the men's racing is a lot still is, more depth to it, but the women really, it got a lot closer and more balanced out that now that that, it goes a lot deeper now for in the top 10.
Speaker 2:Do you think that could also be that the women have a different style of racing than the men in that the women are slower, so the hills they spend more time on a hill than a man, so the hills are longer, essentially, and that they're less likely to wait for a sprint finish? Could that play a role in it?
Speaker 3:I don't know. I I I don't did this analyze this analyze they do they do ride have a have a lap less. So the at the end, they spend about the same time climbing them and then
Speaker 2:Well, how about mountain bike riding as a whole? Do you think
Speaker 3:love the the times that I raced. Back in the days, there was kind of more soul, more passion in in the racing. But when it when I look at at the the product mountain bike racing as a sport and the way it's showcased now with Warner Bros and the reach we have with our sport, we are at the at the place where we can say it has never been better before. But talking about the sport in general, I hope that we can still attract enough young people to to ride acoustic analog bikes and race those bikes, I'm a little bit afraid that this whole wave of e bikes kind of destroys the next generation of regular mountain bikers.
Speaker 2:And do you think that's the push coming from the broadcast, coming from the market? I assume it's not coming from the races.
Speaker 3:No. It's not coming from the races, and it's not coming from the broadcast. It's coming from the market. You know? Just like, I've at the at the hotel we run-in Tuscany at Mosovakia, I just see, like, people, family showing up and and then the the kids at the age of six, seven, eight, they're already on e bikes, so the dad can go out with them and have have have a great ride with them.
Speaker 3:The dad is on a on a cross country bike, and the kids maybe mother is also on an ebike. Sure, I understand. They can do something together and ride together. And then I when I asked them, they said, the dad, so but what what's up with the ebike? The kids on the e bikes?
Speaker 3:Why can't you just go a little bit slower and and bring them along on on pedal bikes? They said, oh, no. No. I mean, it's just to start out with now, but then when they're old enough, they get a they get a proper cross country bike. And then
Speaker 2:Yeah. I
Speaker 3:think if a kid starts to ride an e bike at the age of eight, and then you give the kid at the age of 15 a a regular pedal bike, then they say, fuck you, dad. Who want this? So I'm a little bit afraid. We lose we lose a bit the the base of our community of of what we are calling mountain bike So you're riding.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Well, what if it I mean, I agree with you, but just to play it out, what if it just became e bike racing and it was exactly the same, but everyone was on e bikes? Would what would be the issues with that?
Speaker 3:I completely disagree with e bike. They seem to be shouldn't be part of what we are doing here. I think we've seen it in other sports, motor sports. There's also motocross. They try it with with e motocross, and those those machines, you know, they they go, like, super fast, and they're super cool to ride to.
Speaker 3:But the people want to see the real thing. And and the honest thing is, in my opinion, the racing that that we do now. To control the engine and kind of to standardize the the ebike, I don't even yeah. That's the that's the market, but the racing itself should be what we're doing today. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Formula one now the the market is also selling or tries to sell electro cars, you know, all over the world. So the market would be absolutely there. And they even try the Formula e, and they would they wish it would work, but but it just doesn't. Formula one is still Formula one, and Formula e is is somewhere. Even the market is in electro bikes and not in in fast cars like Formula one.
Speaker 3:Yeah. So that's how I see people want to see the athletes battling it out for the winner and not saying, ah, yeah, but maybe he just had a better bike.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Okay. So the risk of e bikes is one, that it becomes so equipment based, and two, that it starts taking away Yeah. The youth to come into the sport.
Speaker 3:So what can you well, counter question. Mhmm. What about the Tour de France? Should the Tour de France be on electric bikes? Yeah.
Speaker 3:I mean Just because the market is going in that direction.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. What is, say, ten years, the ideal situation where cross country mountain bike riding would be? Like, what would that look like?
Speaker 3:I think we we still have potential to to make the show even bigger, to make it even more attractive, to for spectators to to travel to races, to watch maybe a bit more a part of the racing itself, a bit more festival style around, maybe have some, I don't know, some concerts or some other stuff to do. So people would be party, people would show up for the complete thing, and and the racing is kind of like the reason why to go to the place, but things build around it. I'm sure from a technical aspect, the development of broadcasting will be it it will choose at the beginning. Even we think now, like, wow. If you look at the at broadcasting at the TV product from today, five years ago without drones and and all this.
Speaker 3:I think in five years from now, we are we're even a lot further with maybe some POV from in the race from the riders.
Speaker 2:We
Speaker 3:we soon will he have radio sound of the athletes talking to the team managers or the other way around, that kind of stuff. I think that the the TV product will only get even better from from now on. And then, hopefully, also the courses will develop, and we can go to races that have, like, a proper mountain bike course. Like Nueva Mesto, for example. Yeah.
Speaker 3:And unlike South Korea, for example.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And are you seeing much of a change in, like, the junior development side of the sport and how many people are getting into cross country, especially with, like, the rise of enduro and more gravity sports? Is that something that you can see influencing it?
Speaker 3:The World Series has quite an impact impact now on also the calendar of national series races. Mhmm. And that was the national series races was always the the fundament of rider development. So first of all, athletes have to have races events to go to to race. Yes.
Speaker 3:That's how they develop, and that's how development teams start to to build, and and that's how cycling clubs start to develop young athletes to bring them then to these, to these national series races or, like, grassroot races. That's that's a very, very important factor developing young talents. Looking at Switzerland, we've always had a bit of an advantage because we had since since the early nineties a series, a very established series with the Swiss cup, and a lot of cycling clubs and small development teams did send athletes there. The numbers, were always very, very high. And out of this big pool of young athletes, there were always, each year, riders who developed.
Speaker 3:So, I mean, we now talk about Mino Frischt Interview, but I think Switzerland developed in in the women's and men's field, many, many others. And they all went through this school of the Swiss cup competing there at a pretty high level already. And and that's why when when when these guys that did the Swiss cup, the best ones could also go to the junior world championship and win there because if they are the best in Switzerland, they are on a high level also internationally. So now what happens is with the World Series kind of making it a bit more difficult to organize a series that's strong. I think those races have a tendency to get weaker than stronger, and there, I'm afraid we are losing kind of the the place where young talents are are developed.
Speaker 3:Yeah. They need yeah. Not junior junior is already then an established category, but kids at the age of eight, nine, 10, 12, they need races, events to go to to compete. You know? Competition, that's what makes them stronger and better and and to get them into the sport really.
Speaker 2:Think that that young, it's important to like, around eight
Speaker 3:I do. Yeah. They should
Speaker 2:be getting into it.
Speaker 3:If I look at the Swiss model, they're they have a a skills parkour, or how do you call that? Yeah. Skills
Speaker 2:Skills park.
Speaker 3:A skills park Yeah. That is 50% of of the of the race. So you get points in the skills spark. If you get through the skill spark, you have to lift up some some coins from cones from the from from the ground and ride over between two small between two pieces of wood and kind not putting their foot down. So real technical skills only event, race, competition
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 3:Where it's not timed in a way. Yeah. And then they have a short cross country race that is then only 50% of the of the event. So the cycling clubs or the development teams, they built on a parking lot, one to one, what's what what's what's at the Swiss Cup on this Skillspark they asked. And I think that's why, yeah, they learn in a young age to develop their technical skills.
Speaker 3:It's at least as important as the physical skills to be up there.
Speaker 2:And how about off the bike? How important do you think it is to have things outside of cycling? And, I mean, especially for the athletes, do you think they need to have maybe not a backup plan, but an idea of something else to do, or do you think it's dependent on the athlete? Is that something you work at all with the team athletes around?
Speaker 3:Are you are you asking on the on the professional level or on the on the development level we we just talked?
Speaker 2:I guess both. And at what point would you say focus all in on bikes, or at what point is it important for kids to just, I mean, focus on school or other sports?
Speaker 3:Well, I take now I repeat Nino Schorter's answer to the question, what what a young athlete should do to become a pro? Because that's a question I was asked many times and and Nino got asked many times. Yeah. And I'm I'm I mean, I basically replied the same as he did, but he he's always saying, hey. Sport is a game.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And the game should be fun. So Mhmm. Keep it fun as long as you can. In even still in the junior category, you have to have fun doing what you're doing. You have to have fun while you train.
Speaker 3:You have to have fun doing what you love to do, and that's basically riding a bike. And the serious factor of really performing and start with the right nutrition and and and the strict training plan and and and trying to develop into a top athlete should only develop maybe then starting at the on the 23 category or ideally when you turn elite. You still have to have some room to develop. And those juniors who already get massage once or twice a week at the age of of 17, and they have the the lightest latest carbon bike and do everything to win. They don't have any tools in the toolbox anymore to make the next step to develop each So you kind of have to have a little bit something each year that you have that you can do better to actually also develop.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And and those who are too serious, too early, they usually they're good in the in the young categories, but they then don't make the jump it takes in the elite category. So that's another way of looking at at at the talented young athlete in the on the 23 category. You then ask, hey. So what what do you what's what's kind of like your how much you train, for example? And then there there are under 23 riders that train more than Nino Schorter.
Speaker 3:And then you think, ah, but what's next year when he's elite? Can you still he can't train anymore, so he cannot develop in in that end.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 3:But then you there's still some guys out there that haven't used up their full potential, and these are then the interesting ones to work with because they still have room to develop.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Can you tell us any any people on the circuit that you could you think that there's a lot of potential for them to, you know, untap potential?
Speaker 3:Well, I'm I'm I'm The sniff? I keep I keep trying. I'm I'm looking, but it's it's yeah. It's easier to say than the the reality is the reality is complex.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So how have you seen the team change since Nino leaving, and what do you kind of hope for it to become in the next few years?
Speaker 3:That's a good good question I've been asked a lot in this in a sense. So or or a lot of people thought, well, Nino's leaving Stotsdam and and probably Frischknecht too as he's doing this for for so long and been with Nino for so long. And I'm I was indeed also afraid of this moment and and was having a lot of thoughts of how do we continue. But I can say now, in Leogang, one third into the first season without Nino. Team spirit and me working with this young team has never been cooler Yeah.
Speaker 3:Before. I really I'm me, personally, I feel like it was I'm in a spring. Because I get so inspired of the young people I'm working with now and and seeing how develops now and and and Emily Emily will also she probably doesn't have the the results yet like but also the the whole team got a whole lot younger. And I don't wanna say this disrespectful, but in my team now, cutting a big tree, Nino, gave all the others that were under this big tree so much sun that they are growing really, really fast. And there is a dynamic in this team now that this is super cool.
Speaker 3:And I'm I'm really proud of how we made that switch. Some people thought that Scott's Ram is dead after the Nino leaves, then you watch Noah Maesto
Speaker 2:and Immediately back.
Speaker 3:Okay. They're still here.
Speaker 2:Yeah. There's, three of them now in the one race, I think. Yeah. I mean, personally seeing the inner workings of the team, it amazes me at how comfortable everyone feels with each other and how supportive the environment feels even when you're racing at a top end. And I think that that just builds such a supportive environment, not only for performance short term, but for, like, a long long career and long term performance.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, I think you've done a good job. And it is actually it is a family team in that quite a lot of your family is part of the team. Yeah. How does that dynamic work? Is that something that you kind of plan to happen or has just developed over the years?
Speaker 3:Planning is I wouldn't say planning, but, again, to get the right bits and pieces together, you want to work with people you trust. You also want to work at like, one one big goal of of me is always to keep the team as small as possible, also in numbers of of staff, you know, and so instead of having a having a chef or a food company serving us as a as a for the food at the races, I just bring my my own wife and and, yeah, that's a part time job. I don't have to pay her, and I I she's here not because she is cheap, but because she fits good into the team, I feel. And, yeah, these are the the the things. Sister is doing the the back office for me because I'm traveling a lot, so she's paying all the bills and doing all the the office work.
Speaker 3:I just, do this, from on the road, let her work, send her the stuff to work on. Yeah. Andre is part of the team as a as a as an athlete now since fourteen years. He knows the team inside out and spin at the moment the after second longest team member. Oh, wow.
Speaker 3:And so he has also, I think, built some skills to maybe someday take over some of my responsibilities and and drop. Because I I'm also in a in a process to kind of pass over this legacy to to the next generation. I'm now 56, and I'm not tired of being part of this team or tired to go to the races, but I I lose I lose a little bit of talent in in certain skills where I feel like younger people have to do that work. You know? For example, I until last year, I did the social media account of of Scott's Ram myself with all the errors in English and this and that.
Speaker 3:But now at the age of 56, I don't have the I found you that does it so much better than So there is, like, a lot of things that need to be also adjusted over time where where I still want and will be involved in the team heavily, and I'll still remain as the director. But there's also some other stuff that I let go to hopefully keep this team running also for the future when I'm not around anymore.
Speaker 2:And what do you think it is that makes you keep coming back to the, I mean, to cross country racing, to the World Cup, to the team? You must have been to some of these venues so many times and always on the road. It's not the easiest lifestyle. What makes you keep coming back?
Speaker 3:I think it's just a passion. It's it's a passion for racing. It's a passion for this sport, and that's in the blood. That's not something that came somehow naturally. You must understand that I'm now 56 years old, and and since I'm born in the Kinderwagen, I was every weekend at at the cycling race.
Speaker 3:My dad was was, for nearly twenty years, a professional cyclocross rider. So he raced until 1984 and 1985. I started my career. So from watching my dad until I was 14 to starting my own career, I was 15, and just kind of, like, without the break, we went the whole family from one race weekend to another. And then, yeah, ever since I retired from racing, I'm the team manager and and also go to the races of my son.
Speaker 3:So it's like Yeah. There's no nobody else, I think, that that's here that has been at all the world championships except one in in mountain bike racing. And I I I think there's, by far, nobody that has so many has seen so many World Cup races than me.
Speaker 2:What what was the one you didn't go to?
Speaker 3:I didn't I missed the one in Canberra where Nino won his
Speaker 2:I'm from Canberra. You didn't go to that one.
Speaker 3:I missed that And and and World Champs. I regret so much because I figured, yeah, he's he's now 22 in his first elite world championship. He will pay his toll, but then he won. He beat in Chile, Absalom. I missed this to see that one live.
Speaker 3:That was the only since 1990, the only world championship I didn't see.
Speaker 2:And what's been your favorite? Can you choose?
Speaker 3:My favorite world championship? Yeah. Oh, that's a good good question. I think probably one where I performed well myself. Now I would say that one of the best race I've ever seen or the coolest race I've ever been to was Lenzerheide World Cup two thousand eighteen when Nina won the World Championship Linzer Heide.
Speaker 2:Was it good race?
Speaker 3:Of my own races, I would say, yeah, the marathon World Championship in Lugano, first time they had it in 2003, I won the sprint finish ahead of Bart Reincecht. That was pretty cool. Cool. Also for the fact that the whole family was there. Yeah.
Speaker 3:You know, sometimes world championship, you far away, and there I had all of my friends and family in in my home country.
Speaker 2:Mhmm. And such a
Speaker 3:historic event. Was super cool. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Okay. And then just a few more questions, and then we can wrap it up and get back to World Cup racing. What is a misconception about the sport that you would like to correct?
Speaker 3:I think from the outside, for those who are not physically at the at the races, it all looks from social media, from from from the TV coverage you get, you get the impression that everything is highly professional. And we are highly professional in in many, many things when it comes down to performance. You know, we do athletes live a professional life similar to pro road racing nutrition, with training, with trying to perform at the at the highest there. Are at the very, very high professional level. Also, wise, we are at the level of Formula one.
Speaker 3:But then there's there's other things behind the scene that I think we are still down to the ground with the feet on the ground with with many other things.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Like, if you see our setup, butt naked out here changing in front of the camper van. It's not that that high. The stars in mountain bike racing, they're not treated like superstars like they they are in in in road racing.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And do you think that's a a good thing?
Speaker 3:They have to carry their own bag Yeah. And they they still have to wash their own laundry, and and I think that is a very good thing. They that keeps them grounded, and that keeps them living in a normal world. And I think people from the outside have an impression that it's a whole lot more professional rock star life than it actually is.
Speaker 2:Yeah. Yeah. But, really, we're all just people.
Speaker 3:And I'm
Speaker 2:happy for
Speaker 3:that fact.
Speaker 2:Nice. And then to finish, can you share any maybe funny stories or highlights from your time as team manager of where maybe things were not as professional as they would have seemed.
Speaker 3:Do you want this to be part of the podcast, or is that a a podcast on its own? Because I I I can't tell you a story, but that's gonna take three, four minutes.
Speaker 2:We have three, four minutes.
Speaker 3:So after World Championship twenty nineteen in Mount Sinden, Canada, the team traveled to Snowshoe for the World Cup finals. And Nino with the with the team, with Lars Forster and poor mechanic, Andre was there, Janik, they, they had a day in Washington DC. And it was a time where Donald Trump already made his first, circle of turning the world upside down. So they actually went in front of the White House Yeah. Put their pants down, took a photo, and Nino uploaded it on Instagram in stories.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:White asses for the White House. That was his comment. And, then they traveled to Snowshoe. I was driving the Penske truck with all the bikes and luggage from Mount Sinai to Washington. And I got got in very, very late.
Speaker 3:It was a long, long drive. And then the next morning, I I check, Instagram, and I see this post of Nino, white asses for the White House. I go, holy shit. This this is this is something. I I thought it was really funny, but I I didn't think it was any any diplomatic or any good, you know?
Speaker 3:Mhmm. So I told him, hey. Are you crazy? You can't do that. He said, it's only on story.
Speaker 3:It goes away after the day. And sure enough, the Swiss newspapers, they took a screenshot. And there's not many times that Nino Schurter made the front page of the Swiss newspapers, but that day, he was, like, on all the newspapers front page. It it was such a big story. And then he got all the phone calls from his manager, from from from everywhere.
Speaker 3:What did you do? And then that was, like, the first part. And then we had at the condo we were staying, right next to us was a guy that who was a big fan of the team. Mhmm. And he was working for the FBI, he told us.
Speaker 3:Oh. And he did also hear about that story, and but he thought it was funny. And then we asked, it was actually Brett, Kate's mechanic, that talked him into, would you do us a favor and kind of scare Nino a little bit? And he said, yeah. Sure.
Speaker 3:So after the short track race where he won, he's by the way, the only short track race he ever won, Nino, we were at dinner, and then it was knocking on the door. And then I went to open up the door. The neighbor comes in, talks to me. I was informed about the whole thing, and I go to the dinner table and said, Nino, we have a a problem here. The FBI is here.
Speaker 3:And he was, like he turned, like, pale. And so he was had been a meeting with the FBI guy, and he was acting like a Hollywood actor, like, asking him all these questions. So where do you come from? Where have you been last? And then he said, well, Mount and then Canada.
Speaker 3:What did you do there? I I did a race. What kind of race? The world championship. How did you do?
Speaker 3:I won. So do you think you have something special now? Just because you won the world championship. So it was hilarious. I really had the And then he said, well, I'm sorry, but, I came up now from Washington DC.
Speaker 3:I have to bring you, yeah. I have to to bring you for in for more questions. Please, take your toothbrush and what you need for the next twenty four hours. And that is yeah. But, I have a raisin Sunday, and then yep, I can't guarantee that you release by then.
Speaker 3:We now have to go. So that whole thing, it was like a big show, and and he really shitted in his pants Yeah. Big time. And, yeah, then he got he got to a point where he was, like, shivering and and got so nervous, and I had to step in and say
Speaker 2:That's all a joke.
Speaker 3:Got you. Little prank.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:Yeah. That worked out well.
Speaker 2:And it was good good preparation for the for the race the next day?
Speaker 3:Hey. So it was the whole the whole week was nerve wracking for him, and the whole thing was absolutely nerve wracking for him. But that race, Lars Forster won, and Nina was second. So he had one and two. So
Speaker 2:What got it? Okay.
Speaker 3:Happy end to the to the story. But no matter what, he was still nervous getting to the airport and getting through the gate. He was always expecting someone coming from Oh. From the FBI to fetch him for what he did. But once he was on the plane, he was like, my
Speaker 2:god. I'm I'm free. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for having this chat and for letting me hear all the inside stories. Mhmm.
Speaker 2:And yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay. Well, we'll be back with the mountain bike world cup action next Monday at 5PM eastern. So long for now.