RACE SEASON 2014

RACE SEASON 2014

MULTIVAN MERIDA BIKING TEAM

2014’S SEASON IN RETROSPECT The season 2014 has been long and exciting for the MULTIVAN MERIDA BIKING TEAM: In January the newly-signed runner-up at the under23 World championships Julian Schelb won the silver medal at the German under23 cyclocross championships. The next rider to show top form was Ondrej Cink in February in Cyprus, where he won the second race of the Sunshine Cup. The young Czech added a second place in both the first race and the overall standings to his tally. In March it was up to Rudi van Houts and José Hermida to wave the flag of the MULTIVAN MERIDA BIKING TEAM: The two managed to win the prologue at the Cape Epic stage race, becoming the first team to wear the leader‘s jerseys. The joy did not last for long however, as van Houts crashed heavily the next day and was forced to abandon the race as a consequence.

In mid-April the Worldcup commenced, and at the first round in Pietermaritzburg no less than three riders of the MULTIVAN MERIDA BIKING TEAM made it into the top10. With Ondrej Cink in 4th and José Hermida in 5th, two riders finished on the podium, and the team handsomely won the team classification.

Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjå contributed to the successful start of the Worldcup campaign as well, finishing the women‘s race in 2nd.

Two weeks later it was Julian Schelb‘s turn in the spotlight: The young German advanced to semifinals in Cairns‘ eliminator race.

By winning the small finale he finished in 5th and thus scored his first Worldcup podium finish. José Hermida doubled up on that in the men‘s crosscountry race, finishing in 5th again. Rudi van Houts on the other hand had to forfeit the race after a serious crash when training on the course.

When the Worldcup circus returned to Europe the MULTIVAN MERIDA BIKING TEAM got off-track slightly, however: Due to a mechanical Ondrej Cink fell out of contention early on at his home turf race in Nove Mesto. Still two of the team‘s riders made it into the top10 in the men‘s race with José Hermida and Thomas Litscher. Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjå continued to be a safe bet, adding another Worldcup podium result to her record by finishing in 3rd. In Albstadt the MULTIVAN MERIDA BIKING TEAM could count on the experienced Norwegian again as she scored the best result of the team with a 2nd place. Due to a combination of health issues and bad luck the men could not perform as expected however.

Things turned to the better at the national cross country champion­ships in summer: Both Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjå and José Hermida won their respective races, and Thomas Litscher added a bronze medal in the eliminator race in Switzerland to that.

This marked the beginning of a positive season‘s finale: José Hermida and Thomas Litscher finished within the top10 at the overseas Worldcup races, and Julian Schelb got his best result of the season in the cross country Worldcup by finishing in 6th in Windham. At the final race of the Worldcup season Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjå added another 2nd place to her tally. At the World championships in her home country of Norway she could not live up to her own expectations, however. The men did not succeed in winning a medal either, but at least Rudi van Houts managed to meet his personal target by finishing in 14th.

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-ANNE

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AMPIONSHIPS

MORE SUCCESS. MORE BIKE. The MULTIVAN MERIDA BIKING TEAM intends to compete at the top of mountain biking‘s international racing in the next season as well. One factor that should contribute to that is team manager Fabian Aust‘s careful personnel planning that puts an emphasis on long-term perspectives. If the team is going to be spared from health issues and crash-related injuries, 2014‘s results should be well within reach or even get outdone. Unsurprisingly both Ondrej Cink and Thomas Litscher stress that their main goal for the next season is to remain in good health in order to constantly perform at the elite level they‘re capable of. Throughout the past season only the team‘s two most experienced riders Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjå and José Hermida had managed to do so. These two icons of mountainbiking will continue to ride for the MULTIVAN MERIDA BIKING TEAM for two more years, extending their respective careers as racers at least to Rio de Janeiro‘s Olympic games in 2016. Julian Schelb is looking forward to his first season in the elite category, and Rudi van Houts wants to back up the progress that he has shown towards the end of last season.

Thanks to the well attuned cooperation with VW Nutzfahrzeuge and the other co-sponsors, Fabian Aust is optimistic that his athletes will be competing for wins and podium results throughout the next season again.

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