Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Full name | Christoph Sauser | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Sigriswil, Switzerland | 13 April 1976|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Discipline | Mountain bike | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Role | Rider | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Rider type | Cross-country, marathon | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Major wins | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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Christoph Sauser (born 13 April 1976 in Sigriswil, Switzerland) [1] is a cross-country mountain biker who won the bronze medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. He currently races on the Specialized Cross Country Team.
He was the overall winner of the UCI World Cup in 2004 and 2005, along with taking 2nd in 2002 and 2003, with a 3rd place in 2001. He has won a total of 10 World Cups.
In 2006 Sauser won his first Absa Cape Epic with partner Silvio Bundi. He then partnered up with Burry Stander winning back to back in 2011 and 2012. [2] Sauser partnered up with Jaroslav Kulhavý in 2013, once again claiming 1st in the marathon stage race. At the 2015 Absa Cape Epic Sauser rode himself in the race's history books by becoming the first person to win it a landmark five times, after which he retired from professional racing. In March 2017 Sauser came out of retirement in a bid to win his sixth Absa Cape Epic. In spite of being in good form he and partner Jaroslav Kulhavý (Investec Songo Specialized) finished second to Nino Schurter and Matthias Stirnemann (Scott-Sram). The Sauser/Kulhavy combination was hampered by punctures at critical times.
He won first place in the 2008 Mountain Bike World Championships, came second in the 2005 edition, and third in 2001. He has been Swiss champion four times. In his early years of racing he started in both XC and DH races. He is one of the top mountain bikers in the last few years.
Marie-Hélène Prémont is a Canadian cross-country mountain biker. She is a 6-time Canadian Champion, represented Canada twice at the Olympics, a Commonwealth Games gold medalist, and from 2004 to 2008 was a regular medal winner on the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup cross country circuit.
Julien Arnaud Absalon is a French former cross-country mountain biker, who competed as a professional from 2001 to 2018. He is considered to be one of the most successful cross-country cyclists of all time. Throughout his career, Absalon won gold medals at the 2004 and 2008 Summer Olympics, five World Championships, seven UCI World Cup overall titles and 33 World Cup rounds, which was an all-time record before being broken by Nino Schurter in 2023. He also won all fourteen French cross-country championships between 2003 and 2016, and five European Championships.
Kateřina Nash is a Czech cross-country skier and cyclist who competed from 1994 to 2003 in skiing and is still active in cycling for the Clif Pro Team. Competing in two Winter Olympics, she finished sixth in the 4 × 5 km relay at Nagano in 1998 and had her best individual finish of 20th in the 15 km event in Salt Lake City in 2002.
José Antonio Hermida Ramos is a Spanish cyclist of Catalan origin specializing in competitive mountain biking. He won the silver medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece after having finished in fourth place in the 2000 Summer Olympics.
Miguel Martinez is a French road cyclist and cross-country mountain biker, who most recently rode for UCI Continental team Amore & Vita–Prodir. He won the gold medal at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia after having finished in third place in the inaugural event at the 1996 Summer Olympics. He also rode in the 2002 Tour de France, finishing 44th. His brother Yannick, father Mariano and uncle Martin were also professional cyclists. He is also the father of racing cyclist Lenny Martinez.
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Nino Schurter is a Swiss cross-country cyclist who races for the Scott–Sram MTB Racing Team.
Michiel van der Heijden is a Dutch former professional mountain biker and cyclo-cross cyclist.
Burry Willie Stander was a South African mountain biker, the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup under-23 men's cross-country 2009 world champion.
Pauline Ferrand-Prévot is a French multi-discipline bicycle racer, who rides for UCI Mountain Bike team Ineos Grenadiers in cross-country cycling. Ferrand-Prévot has also competed in road bicycle racing and cyclo-cross during her career, winning the world title in each discipline. During the 2015 season, aged just 23, she became the first person in the history of cycling to simultaneously hold the World road title, World cyclo-cross title and World cross-country mountain bike title.
Jaroslav Kulhavý, is a Czech mountain biker
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Roel Paulissen is a Belgian former professional mountain biker. Throughout his sporting career since 1993, he has won more than ten Belgian national championship titles, mounted top-five finishes at both the European and World Cup series, and claimed a total of four medals, including two golds, in men's cross-country race at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships. Paulissen also represented his nation Belgium in four editions of the Olympic Games, where he competed in men's mountain biking since it officially became an Olympic sport in 1996. By the start of the 2010 season, Paulissen had been overshadowed by a doping issue after he tested positive for clomiphene that sidelined and effectively ended his mountain biking career. Having lifted a two-year suspension from doping in early 2013, Paulissen came out from his short retirement to join and race professionally for the Italian team Torpado.
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Jordan Sarrou is a French mountain biking competitor, who currently rides for UCI Mountain Bike team Absolute–Absalon–BMC. He won the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships at Leogang, Austria in 2020. He has also competed in road cycling infrequently, finishing third in the 2014 Ruota d'Oro.
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Mona Mitterwallner is an Austrian professional cross-country mountain biker. She won the 2021 and 2023 UCI Mountain Bike Marathon World Championships.