Roger Rinderknecht 4X European Championships Report

Swiss GT team rider Roger Rinderknecht became second in the official mountain bike 4X European Championships in Ajdovcina (Slovenia) last weekend. Due to extremely bad weather conditions, the results had to be decided based on the seeding runs. The new European 4X champion 2009 is Michal Prokop from the Czech Republic, third is his fellow countryman Tomas Slavic and fourth Johannes Fischbach from Germany. The 4X track in Ajdovcina can be described in two words: steep and fast. The riders needed less than 40 seconds for the whole descent. The 4X course was not that tricky itself, but the weather made it just unpredictable. Due to the changing conditions only a few minutes made big differences concerning the best line on the track. It was a hard job for the attending riders from all over Europe. They had to cope with extreme weather conditions, which they are not used to in general. Roger Rinderknecht explains the main problems: “When the rain began to fall, the track became just slippery. OK, no big deal, but when the ground began to dry again, the mud became so extremely sticky for a short period of time that some wheels even blocked! So everybody had to give his best and bear the full risk in the seeding runs." The biggest double of the track seemed to be the gatekeeper for the fastest runs and Top5 positions. The question was: jump or roll the big double? Roger got assistance from his coach concerning this question: "The big double was not jumpable in the last training run. So I asked my coach to tell me during the seeding runs, if the two riders ahead jumped the double. He told me, that Alvarez and Wichman reduced their speed in front of the double. At this moment, I knew that this small section of the track and a clean line in it could decide the win. At the worst conditions you can imagine, I jumped the scary double and got a big lead over the others for a long time. But the track dried very fast during the seeding runs and I feared the worst. The track became much faster, but it was only Michal Prokop, who was able to beat my time. So I am happy and satisfied. Congrats to Prokop anyway! Like most of the UCI World Cup riders, Roger will have an easygoing training period till the next races in Mont Saint Anne (July 25th and 26th) and Bromont (August 1st and 2nd) in Canada. In between, Roger will also attend the Mega Avalance in Alpe d'Huez just for fun. For more detailed information about Roger Rinderknecht, please visit the rasoulution website or Roger's homepage: www.rasoulution.com or www.rogerrinderknecht.com