Frischi Business

Word bites from a recent chat I had with Thomas Frischknecht, the original Swiss Ace of mountain biking

ST; Coming from CX to MTB in the early days - what drew you to the sport, and how was mountain biking accepted then, especially by your dad?

TF; My dad was a professional cyclo-cross racer in the 70’s and 80’s. This is how I was born into the sport. When I was 17 I started to pay attention to MTB. At the age of 20 I was the first European to spend the season in the US to race the NORBA nationals. 

MTB at that time was by far less recognised than cyclo-cross. It was not well received by everyone when I switched from cross to MTB, Especially by my dad who thought that it a waste of time.

 ST; How different was the mountain biking spirit back then compared to now, and how did you see it change as the UCI became involved, and then the Olympics?

TF; The spirit back then was good- and today it still is. Many things changed, but the love of the sport remained over all this years. Sure, these day’s things are a lot more hectic. But in principle it’s more the race format and equipment that changed drastically, not the spirit itself.

ST; Courses, racing style, everything is far from what it was 25 years ago. What are the good and bad points of that evolution?

TF; MTB first had to figure out what the best format is for racing. That took quite some time. The evolution of shorter and more spectacular racing has only positive aspects. We are now a TV friendly sport - not like 25 years ago.

ST; Could you ride a modern course on your pre-suspension bike? And do you think manmade courses have taken away from natural aspect?

TF; I tried that in Val di Sole two years ago. It’s very tough if not impossible. The drops and jumps of today are very difficult with a bike of the 90’s. 

Manmade courses are part of making the sport spectator friendly. But there are good examples that modern courses still can be natural; Mont Saint Anne is a good example.