The Olympic Race - personal thoughts
If I have to be honest my mind has been lost since yesterday afternoon. I am totally and utterly gutted for the team. Deflated is the best way to describe it, but I am still very proud of Lene, Liam and Christoph and reckon tomorrow we will already be thinking positively ahead!
Lene's goal was a top 8 and she was on target despite crashing. Then on the final lap another crash followed by a puncture left her in 13th position. She was of course very disappointed, but Lene can look positively forward towards a bright future.
I was very happy for Sabine Spitz the new Olympic Champion, who was a member of Specialized Factory Racing in 2006. Both Sabine and her husband Ralf are sound people …. It was great to see both of them smiling from ear to ear.
Liam is a talent - that’s for sure. I could not see Liam on the first lap and thought I might have missed him in the group and then a text from a friend to say sorry about Liam’s crash answered my question. Claire and Ryan were walking with their backs to the course. The rear motorbike had passed many minutes earlier and they got such a shock to see Liam riding by, way behind the field. Liam rode into the feed in tears, had his handlebars straightened and then it started. Liam rode from last to seventh. I know Liam is disappointed, but there are so many positives he can take from that ride. He told me after the race that he spilled straight off the course and fell into a big trench!!
Too many friends worldwide the Olympics represent the first opportunity every four years to get a glimpse of Christoph racing LIVE. Of course we entered this race very positively and I did text one friend to say that I had a good feeling days before, but in hindsight Christoph was lucky to be here, given his ripped open knee in a crash weeks only 3 ½ weeks ago, which then got infected. There was a three day period following that crash, where Christoph was told that he would not be in Beijing. “As tough as nails” is one way to describe Susi. He remained calm, got on with things and made the start-line – that is mark of his personality.
In the opening laps, I knew Christoph was not at his best. On his day Christoph would have not given in to Julien without a monster fight! Christoph is arguably, one of the greatest and most consistent mountain bikers ever, so it was disappointing for him to say goodbye to the Olympics without a medal. Christoph revealed to the media afterwards that he will not be in London 2012.
Christoph’s form was so good when he won that world title at the end of June, but since then he has been hampered by bad luck, firstly with that finish at Marathon Worlds and then his knee injury. When Christoph finished he told me that his good leg had been cramping badly, simply because he had been working so much with this leg over the “bad one”. I can understand his disappointment. He did win a bronze in Sydney 2000, which he is grateful for, but a broken chain in Athens and a subsequent DNF, meant that today he hoped would be his day - sadly not.
I am extremely proud of Christoph in so many ways. He was not in top form, but fought until the end and still managed fourth, which speaks volumes in my book. Well done to Julien, Jean-Christoph and Nino for putting on a great show and to Liam for the comeback move of the race, which showed great grit and determination.
The team now travel to Australia for World Cup Number 8 in Canberra.
Bobby.