Christian Pfäffle of STEVENS MTB Racing Team rode a fantastic race at the Cross Country World Championships in Nove Mest, Czech Republic. Starting from position 100, he rode up to place 15 on his new STEVENS Jura Carbon therefore becoming best ranked rider of the German national team. After the first lap he had already gained 50 places.
Christian Pfäffle said about the course: ”Nove Mesto is a worthy MTB race course: Lots of short climbs, many roots, jumps, rocky sections – just everything it takes. Also the crowd with 22,300 ticket-buying spectators was just amazing.”
”I had hoped to get into the top 40, since my lap times indicated that to be possible …”, the 23-year old said to acrossthecountry.net after his first Elite world championship race. ”… when everything works out great maybe place 30 but I had never thought to finish 15th.” In all the World Cup races throughout the season he had finished in the top 40 or better. During the season he had already proven that he can catch up from behind. In the World Cup race in La Bresse, France he had passed 80 riders, in Nove Mesto it was even 85.
”Then It Became Too Slow For Me”
What eventually proved crucial for his success was an absolutely perfect start. In the very first lap he already gained incredible 50 positions. ”Actually I wanted to stay in the 40-ranks for a while because I thought I can keep that position”, the man from Neuffen, Germany said to acrossthecountry.net, ”but then it the race went too slow for me and I accelerated again. When I reached the field with the big names in it that was additional motivation for me.”
In the second lap he was 28th already and by lap three he had worked himself to place 21. From lap four on the gap to the top riders became bigger, which on the one hand meant more space to move on the course but on the other made it more difficult to reach the front of the race. So, despite consistently riding good lap times he could make only small advancements. Christian: ”In lap 4 of 6+1 I had already reached position 19; and since the gap to the front wasn’t that big anymore I tried to catch up to the riders in front of me.”
In lap six he even overtook Marco Fontana, Bronze Medalist in the last Olympics, and the former Dutch National Champion Rudi van Hoots. Meanwhile he was able to enjoy the sensational atmosphere of this race due a huge enthusiastic crowd. The eventual new champion was the same as the old one, Nino Schuster who won in front of Jaroslav Kulhavy (Czech Republic) and Julien Absalon (France). The World Champion from Switzerland had attacked in the fourth of six laps and crossed the finish line with a 30 seconds advantage.
STEVENS Jura Carbon
The course was a welcome opportunity for Christian to test the new STEVENS Jura Carbon in actual competition. ”The Jura worked perfectly! I virtually didn’t feel the roots. First I was a little insecure since being a pre-production model it was quite heavy. Before the start I fine-tuned the chassis together with my tech coach, so the 120mm of travel really were a good fit. But also the bike’s handling really surprised me in a positive way. It was virtually its first really hard competition on rough terrain.“
Second best German finisher was Manuel Fumic on place 17. A flat tire in the second lap cost him 15 places and prevented him from a better result. Otherwise a top-ten finish could have been possible.
But not only Christian Pfäffle also Moritz Milatz knows how to overtake: Having begun the race at position 80, he fought forward to place 24. Meanwhile Markus Schulte-Lünzum rode the 8th best lap time which says more about his capabilities than his eventual 35th place.
