Roger Rinderknecht rides the 4X final at the World Championships in Scotland

Roger Rinderknecht showed at the 4X World Championships in Fort William (GBR) one more time that you can always count on him at World Championships. After winning the eighths, quarters and semis, he moved into the finals as the absolute favorite. Because of an unfortunate crash he wasn't able to fight for win and missed out on hitting the podium. He returned in Switzerland as the 4th best in the world of 4X. The 4X action of the Swiss can be seen since today on Freecaster: www.play.freecaster.com. It shows a special Roger Rinderknecht edit. Fort William – being well renowned by all the riders for the World Cup circus – invited the 4Xers to fight for the 2007 World Championships title. The track had been modified compared to the past years. More straight aways were integrated to lengthen the course and to give the riders more chances to pass each other. The sizzling vibes, spectator masses as well as the characteristic Scottish weather did definitely remind of the years before. Despite an unlucky season 2007, including breaking his hand two month before, Swiss Roger Rinderknecht showed everybody that he is a man to keep in mind concerning the first places at the World Championships. After enduring the hand operation well, Roger demolished his competitors after some outstanding hole shots in the first heats. No doubt, he had the firm will to show the world what he is made of. On his way to the finals some big names failed on him. Whether Cedric Gracia – who unfortunately eliminated himself and got injured after a crash not too far from the finish line – or Kamil Tartakovic, he left them behind after the start and crossed the line with a big lead over the other riders from the respective heats. Even Brian Lopes had to admit defeat in the semis. In the finals Roger was elbow to elbow with Dutchman Jurg Meijer, 2007 World Cup winner Brian Lopes and probably the biggest surprise from France, the qualifying fastest Romain Saladini. Starting from gate 3, Roger had relative good chances, even though he was further out than Saladini and Lopes. Unfortunately shortly after the start he found himself and his GT bike too far on the outside of the track. Trying to pull over to the internal line he collided with Saladinis rear wheel and had to go down. The other riders made use of this chance and rode off without him. Being back on his bike, Roger was only able to finish the run on the fourth place. Roger directly after the race: “Right now I am certainly a little bit disappointed because I was not able to reach a better place than the fourth in the finals, so I missed the podium. But I do believe that I will be really happy about this result tomorrow, after a night of good sleep. The competition in the 4X was really hard this year, if you are thinking of riders like Graves, Prokop, Lopes or Gee Atherton. To my mind, I can definitely sport this result. And today he is definitely contend with his result and everybody who wants to check out Roger’s action, should go on Freecaster: www.play.freecaster.com Here you can see that Roger was real fast in Scotland and that he can win any day against anyone in the world. But there won’t be a much rest for Roger Rinderknecht after the World Championships. He will be already on his way to Maribor for the last World Cup this season and after that continuing to the BMX Supercross World Cup in Salt Lake City. Next year, like most people know, Roger won’t only concentrate on MTB racing, but will prepare himself for the BMX Olympics 2008. Because of the strength he showed numerous times at mountain bike World Championships, there is no doubt that he will put all one’s eggs in one basket in Peking next year. The chances for success are looking real good. Roger Rinderknecht thanks all his partners for the great support: GT, Oakley, Ssang Yong, IXS, Magura, DT Swiss, Crankbrothers