Beijing 2008: SRAM athletes highjack the podium

Two more Olympic gold medals, a silver and a bronze medal for SRAM athletes! The mountainbike race at Beijing on Saturday saw SRAM sponsored racers, Julien Absalon (FRA) Jean-Christophe Peraud (FRA), Nino Schurter (SUI) and Sabine Spitz (GER) on top of the podium after the toughest Olympic MTB race ever. At temperatures of 30°C, Sabine Spitz showed the perfect form and her mind set on victory. From the start the German champion and Vice World champion raced ahead of the field and had a comfortable 50 second edge. Even a crash in the last lap could not stop her clinching her first Olympic gold. With his second Olympic gold medal after Athens 2004, four times World champion Julien Absalon proved again that he is a mountainbiker apart for the rest. Absalon won the men’s race with a minute and 7 seconds ahead of his compatriot and teammate Jean-Christophe Peraud. Third was the Swiss rider Nino Schurter riding a SRAM X.0 drivetrain and Avid Juicy Ultimate brakes. Sabine Spitz rode with SRAM X.0 components to gold while Julien Absalon and Jean-Christophe Peraud topped the podium with complete SRAM components: SRAM X.0, RockShox SID, Avid Juicy Ultimate and Truvativ Noir. All the men on the MTB podium are BlackBox athletes using and testing the most advanced SRAM components and products. www.sram.com