SCOTT-SRAM MTB Team Celebrates 20 Years of Racing

Hard to believe, but 20 years ago the team now known as SCOTT-SRAM MTB Racing was launched under the name Swisspower MTB Team. In the fast-paced environment of sports, it's rare to see a team inspire for so long, especially at such a high and successful level. Champions such as Kate Courtney, Jenny Rissveds, Nino Schurter, Lars Forster, Florian Vogel and Thomas Frischknecht, to name just a few, have all contributed victories over the past two decades that can be summed up with impressive palmares:

• 4 Olympic medals - 2 x gold
• 17 World Champion titles
• 8 World Cup Champion titles
• 50 World Cup victories
• 38 national titles

We look back with pride and fully motivated for whatever the future holds.

In the team's 20 years of existence, we have never had a bad year. Year after year, we have been spoiled by the wins that the SCOTT-SRAM athletes brought home. However, the 2021 season started out rough. Still getting over the Covid pandemic, some things didn't come together in time for the season start. The longer the season lasted, the more the team felt their backs against the wall. Knowing all the work the athletes and the team behind had put into the 2021 season, they knew it was only a matter of time before they can show off. But patience was needed. Not a real strength of the athletes and in particular their team manager...

In the end, the patience paid off big time. With N1NO's World Champion and Lars' European Champion title, the SCOTT-SRAM Team has two of the most prestigious jerseys on their shoulders.Now we can look back to a tough 2021 season with a happy end. It's fair to say the 20th season was just as great as the 19 prior. And, as we learned from Nelson Mandela: "We never lose! We either win or we learn."Have a look at the 2021 recap video. It's worth it!

You may ask what makes this team so different? Lasting longer and being more successful than most other teams? It's consistency that SCOTT-SRAM relies on. A great network of partners and suppliers that deliver the best equipment and the support it takes to win. Partners like SCOTT Sports, SRAM, SPONSER and OAKLEY have been there since the very beginning. And obviously, the people behind the team are founded on consistency. Founder of the Swisspower Team was Andi Seel together with Thomas Frischknecht, who still operates as the team's manager. Nino Schurter joined Swisspower early in his career in 2003 at the age of 17. He's now going into his 20th season with the same team.

Looking back at the 2021 season, Thomas Frischknecht reflects on the challenges, as well as the ups and downs and stories to be told along the way. 

20 Years of SCOTT-SRAM! How does it feel for you after all these years?

In one way, it’s hard to believe 20 years have gone  by this quickly. On the other hand, these two decades are full of great stories and moments that make me understand that we have been on a long and awesome journey, which isn’t going to stop now.

What has changed over these two decades?   

In two decades a lot of things have changed. From the equipment and the style of the race tracks, to the way riders train, recover and eat. But in our team we have also had a lot of things that remained the same over these 20 years. A good team spirit was always and still is an important part of how we get along with each other. Having very loyal team members and sponsors help a lot towards building a solid foundation. And consistency leads to success. 

Besides racing, we have the great opportunity to work on product development with our partners like SCOTT or SRAM, to name the most important ones. We feel a lot of appreciation from our partners in the involvement we have in the development of new products and technologies.  Being able to work with the latest products earlier than the rest of the competition, in order to provide valuable feedback for the development teams, is something we really enjoy. And there we can rely on relationships with Product Managers that we have known for 20 years now. 

2020 has been a difficult year. How did the team handle this challenge?

Knowing everybody on this planet is facing problems with the pandemic, I don’t like to complain about the difficulties we had getting through this. A lot of planning became short term, and everybody had to stay flexible. A good lesson learnt that we can rely on in the future. Even during this time, the riders’ motivation was never a problem coming out of 2020. In fact, after not racing much in 2020 everybody was on fire to get back to racing, both athletes and staff. The difficulty we faced was more about getting over some not so good World Cup races early in the season. But that’s exactly where good team spirit pays off. The team bonded more over the past two years due to the darker times, not the successes.

Looking at the impressive palmares the team managed to put together over the past 20 years, what are the special moments you experienced over the years?

The greatest moments don’t even have to be related to big wins. There are so many great stories of living and racing as a team, it could fill a book. But related to race wins, there are two that stand out: first is the double Olympic Champion titles of Jenny Rissveds and Nino Schurter in Rio 2016. Having two athletes at the Olympics and both winning gold is something you simply can’t beat! Another was the final stage at the 2017 Cape Epic. We had six athletes in the race and all of them were the winners that day. Nino Schurter & Matthias Stirnemann plus Jenny Rissveds and me (Mixed) won the overall. Andri Frischknecht & Michiel van der Heijden won the final stage. It is one thing to win a race as an individual but winning as a team and sharing the emotions with others… you can’t top it. 

Focusing on the most recent 2021 racing season, what were the turning points for you?

Being spoiled with big wins the years prior, we could not take this season for granted. We knew the ingredients were still the same as in previous years. The quality of the athletes and the work that was put in to be successful was there at all times. Patience was needed and also that certain amount of luck it takes to make big things happen. Sometimes there are pieces in the puzzle we can’t control. To win, everything has to come together. Finally, it happened at the European and World Championships.

Looking forward to 2022 Cape Epic, coming back to the race after two years must be special for the athletes, mechanics and the whole team?

We really missed the Cape Epic the past two years. In 2020, it was hard to except the cancelation only 24 hours prior to the start. We had four teams and a huge entourage ready to race. Now we are hungry to go back to race in South Africa, an experience we all love. However, the Cape Epic is an adventure each time as so many things can go wrong. But if we are lucky enough to get through without troubles, I bet we will be up with the very best… again.