09/10/2007 Team
Sam Schultz Top American at the Mountain Bike World Championships
In the opening competition of the Mountain Bike World Championships in Ft William Scotland, Subaru-Gary Fishers Sam Schultz was a member of the bronze medal winning USA Team effort in the Team Relay competition. The relay pits 4-person teams from each country racing one lap each of the 7.9 kilometer Worlds course.. Each squad consists of an elite female, junior male, under-23 male and elite male cross-country rider. The USA opted to stage their riders in the order listed above, where as other countries lead-off with a U-23 or elite male rider. The gamble for the USA seemed to pay off as they worked their way up from fifteenth on the first lap. They had gained an additional spot by the time Sams turn arrived. Once on course, Sam rapidly picked his way through the countries, moving up places to eighth. Not only was Schultzs time the fastest lap of the third leg riders, but also the third fastest of the U-23 men, hopefully a good indicator of his fitness for the individual race competition. This was the best performance by the USA Realy Team. The previous best was fourth in 1999. The USA was just :20 second back from second place Poland and 1:09 behind defending team relay champions Switzerland. Several other Subaru-Gary Fisher riders also raced the team relay for their country: Jenny Copnall (Great Britain) and Dror Pekatch (Israel).
Later that same week, Sam Schultz competed in the U-23 mens cross-country. Sam raced against his Japanese teammae Ken Onodera. Sam rode in eighth place most of the event, but on the last lap lost a couple spots after giving it all his on the early laps. Sam finished in 11th place overall and was the top North American finisher in the U-23 race.
It was a nice way to cap the season and solidify his reputation as one of the top American racers for several years to come.
All told, seven Subaru-Gary Fisher athletes representing four countries were in attendance at the 2007 world championships. The Subaru-Gary Fisher MTB Team is proud to be sponsored by: Subaru of America, Inc , Gary Fisher Bicycles, SRAM , RockShox, Bontrager Wheelworks and Components, Avid Brakes, Bontrager tires, Crank Brothers pedals, Nike Cycling shoes, performance and casual apparel, 661 gloves, Tokyo Joe's, Stronglight chainrings, Light & Motion, Pedros, Genuine Innovations, Brave Soldier, Yakima , Mountainsmith, Cane Creek, Sara SuperSocks, GU Energy Gel and GU2O Sports Drink.
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