September 5, 2009 (Canberra, Australia) – Swiss sensation Nino Schurter upstaged four-time MTB Worlds and reigning Olympic champion Julian Absalon (France) in a nail-biting finale to the Elite men’s cross country competition at the 2009 UCI Mountain Bike and Trials World Championships at Stromlo Forest Park in Canberra on Saturday.

Schurter, 23, won the 2004 Junior XC Worlds crown, and last year claimed gold in the U23 event as he added the Elite title to his collection of rainbow jerseys. His team mate Florian Vogel, 27, was third.

The men’s race was the most exciting XC event of the week with only a few seconds separating Schurter and Absalon in final laps, with Vogel in third and Spain’s Jose Antonio Hermida Ramos in 4th finishing with the same time 58 seconds behind the winner.

All four of the top men sat together for the first four and a half 6.47km laps of the 45.29km race but it was Schurter and Vogel who rode a tactically perfect race for Switzerland. Canada’s Geoff Kabush, a crowd favourite, was within reach of the top finishers for most of the race but came up just short of the podium finishing 5th.

From the outset the top five finishers had established themselves pulling away from the field and keeping the pace high with each lap. However, five became four when Kabush had to change out his rear tire on the third lap and lost 20 seconds.

From the fourth lap to the finish Schurter and Abalon were at the front chased by Hermida Ramos and Vogel with Kabush trying to make up the difference and bridge to the leaders. The two Swiss riders in each group played a smart tactical race until the end. With less than 1.2km to go Absalon tried to attack but misjudged his gears and lost ground as Schurter surged ahead at the final feed zone to take the win with a time of 2:04:39. Vogel played his cards well as the race for third was close until the final straight away where he was too strong for Hermida and pulled away to take the bronze in the final sprint.

“I’ve had such a bad season but now with this race it’s a dream come true,” said Schurter. “It’s an amazing feeling, the perfect race, and the perfect course for me. It was very technical and that suits me. The whole race I was thinking just to try to stay on his back wheel and race for silver, never thinking I could take the win, but at the last feed zone I attacked and got away.”

Schurter praised his bronze medal winning teammate. “I like courses that are technical so this was a perfect course for me. I was lucky to stay with Julien and maybe without Florian up front I wouldn’t have been able to do that,” he added. Absalon who settled for second commented, “I did most of the race in front but was not in a good position at the end.”

The other Canadians included Max Plaxton who had a strong race coming in 22nd (+6:07), Derek Zandstra finished in 37th (+10:46) and Seamus McGrath placed 42nd (+11:37).

The 2009 UCI Mountain Bike and Trails Championships finish up on Sunday with the Dowhill finals and Observed Trials “26 finals.