MULTIVAN MERIDA BIKING TEAM

Writing history of sports…

For the MULTIVAN MERIDA BIKING TEAM, the 2012 season brought some highly memorable successes that will find their way into the history of sports. Winning the Worldcup races in la Bresse and Val d’Isère respectively, Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjå now has won 28 times in 16 years, a truly outstanding career performance. These 28 wins equal the record of Julie Furtado, one of the dominating riders in the early days of mountainbiking.
Another performance for the history books was Ralph Näf’s win at the first world championships ever in the crosscountry eliminator format at Saalfelden. This marked a triumphant finale of Näf’s ten years with the MULTIVAN MERIDA BIKING TEAM.

Another impressive performance was the fact that no less than four riders of the MULTIVAN MERIDA BIKING TEAM made it to London’s Olympic bike race. No other team could match that number. But an Olympic medal remained out of reach: José Hermida’s fourth-place finish was the best the team riders could do, and Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjå had to endure a particularly frustrating Olympic race with an early crash and a mechanical throwing her out of contention. A few weeks later however, Dahle Flesjå was back to her own strength, adding the Silver medal at the Cross Country World championships to the European Cross Country champion title she had won in Moscow.

At the same European championships, Ralph Näf won a Bronze medal. José Hermida finished another season within the top5 of the Worldcup overall standings, and the MULTIVAN MERIDA BIKING TEAM confirmed its status as one of the strongest teams in Cross Country racing. Nevertheless, the team’s management has decided to rejuvenate the line-up of the team drastically for 2013. As MERIDA’s brand ambassadors, the two experienced professionals Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjå and José Hermida continue as the team’s captains, and Rudi van Houts still is with the team as well. Ralph Näf and Jochen Käß however have left the team. After the main focus of the MULTIVAN MERIDA BIKING TEAM will be on the Cross County discipline in the future the two marathon specialist Hannes Genze and Andreas Kugler have left the squad as well.

… and a rejuvenated team for 2013

They are being replaced by the respective under23 World champions of 2011 and 2012, Switzerland’s Thomas Litscher and Ondrej Cink of the Czech Republic. «We expect these young, talented and hungry riders to put some pressure on our long time team members and at the same time learn the ropes from them in order to become contenders for wins in the elite category as well. Rudi van Houts is kind of the connecting link between the talents and the seasoned riders», Andreas Rottler comments on the new signings. «The clear priority of the MULTIVAN MERIDA BIKING TEAM is on the Cross Country Worldcup races and the expanded series of Cross Country eliminator races. In addition, we are going to compete in selected stage and marathon races such as the Andalucia Bike Race or the ABSA Cape Epic.»

One more change deserves to be mentioned: Andreas Rottler has handed over the position as the manager of the MULTIVAN MERIDA BIKING TEAM to his long-term assistant Fabian Aust. Rottler himself has been promoted to become MERIDA Europe’s Director of Sport Marketing, coordinating the brand’s sponsoring effort in both mountainbiking and road cycling.