Thomas Frischknecht Cross Update

In December I went to South Africa for a two week training camp to get back in shape for the cross races. Under Florian Vogel's training regime we went for 30 minutes runs at 7 o clock in the morning (who ever knows me gets an idea how high the training moral was under the SA sun) and 4-6 hours rides daily. It felt great to be in the sun and get the 2008 season started in such a beautiful environment. The trip paid of soon with some great results in the 5 cross races over Christmas-New Year.

December 23rd in Meilen I placed 6th. Due to my bad starting position it took me a while to get up front. December 26th in Dagmarsellen I crossed the line first but still did not win! In the sprint against ex. Swiss road champion Alexander Moss I had to use my elbows a bit. Nothing unfair, just a regular race situation as it happens in every race. As a Phonak road pro he knows that exactly, but protested anyway. Well, the jury put me back to second place.



The next few races he did not get in my way anymore. It was more myself and Christian Heule who kept me from winning. In Schmerikon December 30th I was in safe 2nd place after riding with Florian the whole race. On a small descent I lost control over my front wheel, went down and slipped into a river along the racecourse. Even the temperature was around freezing point, I had to laugh so hard about myself, I barely was able to get to the finish. Heule won his home race, Florian was second and I was third.



On Sylvester night we did a MTB race on the track during the Zürich 6-Day. Ralph Näf finished his year with a win, I placed 5th. First race in 2008 was my Cat. 1 Flüüger cross in Dübendorf on January 2nd. The event was very successful and the most spectacular race I did for years. Again it took me half the race to catch the leaders. With little UCI points I always had to start far back. Going into last lap Swiss champion Christian Heule, teammate Vogel, Pirmin Lang, Ralph Näf and myself where still together. Followed by Jose Antonio Hermida. Heule had the better end again. But I was more than happy finishing only 3 seconds behind in 2nd. Florian filled the podium to make up a nice Swispower Team race.



Unfortunately the conditions changed right in time for nationals from frozen-fast terrain to muddy-slow. This certainly lowered my chances for the title. The running in South Africa did not help enough to keep up with Christian. Tough, with Heule the best guy won and I was happy to win a silver medal after not being on the podium at nationals since 2004. My cross season was only two weeks long, but with 4 podiums successful. Hope this is a good sign for the MTB season as well.



My 13-year-old son Andri was also successful, winning three races in his category. For the Swiss national TV this was reason enough to do a story on the third generation of Frischknecht winning races in cross.





To watch the movie go to: http://www.sf.tv/sfsport/sportpanorama/index.php and click on movie by my picture.

My next race is going to be the Cape Epic in March.

See ya,
Frischi

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