Roger Rinderknecht - fourth place in Houffalize, Belgium 4X

Last weekend the 4X World Cup season celebrated the kick off in Houffalize, Belgium. The Swiss Roger Rinderknecht dominated the heats until the finals and got fourth behind the winner Jared Graves (AUS) - Tomas Slavik (CZE) got 2nd and Michael Prokop (CZE) finished 3rd. Roger went really motivated into the seeding runs and had a fast time that placed him in the TOP3. Only Graves (AUS) und Wichman (NED) finished the 450 meters long 4X track with 120 meters height amplitude faster than Rinderknecht. On Saturday, the BMC team rider from Winterthur dominated all his heats until the semi finals, in which he faced Tomas Slavik, Joost Wichman (NED) und Scott Beaumont (GBR). It was a tough race, but Roger pedalled hard to stay in the top 2. Slavik won and Roger got second to meet their well-known competitors Jared Graves (AUS) und Michael Prokop (CZE) in the grand finals. Graves got the best start, all four riders were close together and battled full force in the whole first section until Rinderknecht slipped his pedals on third position and got passed by Slavik. The final standings were: Graves first, Prokop second, Slavik third and Rinderknecht fourth. Roger is nevertheless satisfied with the competition: "It was a good start into the World Cup season. I felt quite strong during the whole weekend, even if the track was pretty rough to ride. Unfortunately, the semi finals were pretty exhausting and my legs felt like they were exploding. I couldn't recover completely until the finals started, so it didn't work out the way I had planned. But it is all good – I can't wait for the next World Cup tour stop!" Roger can count on the support of his sponsors BMC, Oakley, SR Suntour, iXS, DT Swiss, Onza, Crankbrothers and Syncros.