Legendary mountain biker Nino Schurter (Scott-SRAM) will conclude his career in front of his home crowd at two races – the XCO World Championships in Crans-Montana and his favorite event, the Lenzerheide World Cup.
The Swiss cyclist's achievements include an Olympic gold medal from the 2016 Rio Games, a silver medal from the 2012 London Games, and a bronze from the 2008 Beijing Games. He has won the World Championship ten times (2009, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022) and the World Cup overall classification nine times (2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023).
Schurter secured his latest XCO stage victory – a record-breaking 36th – in Val di Sole, Trentino, in June 2024, at the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series.
This season started strongly with his third Cape Epic victory (his first since 2019) alongside Filippo Colombo, but in the XCO World Cup, he has finished in the top ten twice this year – in Araxás in April and Pal Arinsal in July.
"Dear mountain bike family and everyone else. For the past two decades, I have given my body, mind, and soul to mountain biking. It's a beautiful sport, but at a professional level, it's also relentlessly tough. You either win races, are a contender, or you don't exist. There's no room for passengers. It's all or nothing, 24 hours a day, seven days a week," said Schurter.
"When I competed in my first World Championships, I was just a kid chasing a dream – in Lugano in 2003 – and I left with my first international medal. I didn't know then that this dream would carry me through countless unforgettable moments and allow me to win more than half of all these titles," he added.
Is there a better way to end a career than by doing so in front of the home crowd at the last two XCO races – starting with the World Championships in Crans-Montana on September 14th, and finishing two weeks later at the Lenzerheide World Cup, which he last won in 2023.
