For the past three years, Christoph Sauser has been the almost man at the UCI world mountain-bike championships. The 31-year-old Specialized rider lost close duels with Frenchman Julien Absalon in 2005 and 2006 — in ’05 a poorly timed flat tire derailed Sauser, while in ’06 Absalon simply climbed away from him on the last lap.

The bad luck followed the Swiss rider to the 2006 marathon world championships, where a mechanical knocked him out while he was riding in the lead with eventual winner Ralph Naf.

Sauser finally grabbed his first rainbow stripes as an elite at the 2007 UCI marathon world championships in Verviers, Belgium. After Naf dropped out with a mechanical, Sauser took a whopping five-and-a-half minute victory over Belgian Roel Paulissen.

With two weeks to go before the UCI world mountain-bike championships in Fort William, Scotland, Sauser said the win has given him the confidence he needs to take on Absalon.

VeloNews: You’ve been trying to win rainbow stripes for some time now. How does it feel to finally be a world champion?

Christoph Sauser: It is very good. I’ve been once the world champion as a U23 and also with the team relay, but this feels so good. It is hard to describe the feeling or meaning because I have missed it for many years. When you struggle hard and don’t win you start to doubt yourself. I appreciate this 10 times more because of that.

VN: That makes three male Swiss marathon winners in four years. And this year’s women’s winner, Petra Henzi, is also Swiss. Why do Swiss succeed at the longer races?

CS: Yes, we Swiss are pretty good marathon racers. Marathon racing is very popular in Switzerland, and also because we have the best mountains in Europe to ride in. There are so many people racing bikes in Switzerland who are always watching what we are doing. And you go to [marathon] races and there is a big cheering response and many spectators.

VN: Julien Absalon is going for his fourth-straight world title next month and he won the World Cup overall again. How do you feel going up against him?

CS: I want to win as well. Julien was very strong this year, but that does not mean he is fully untouchable. He never won by three or four minutes, except for when it was super muddy [at the June 9 World Cup] in Offenburg [Germany]. Julien is ahead, but he’s not that much far ahead. He just always has had that spark at the end. But [the marathon] world champion title has given me that click I need to win in a month.

I know that the race [in Scotland] will be hard in a different way, and I will need more in my legs. But with the world title I know have that confidence in the back of my head.

VN: Road cycling has endured a long year of drug suspensions and controversy around the use of performance enhancing drug use. Do you think mountain-bike racing has a similar problem?

CS: No. I can just talk for myself that I am 100-percent clean, but for perspective clean riders are 100 percent able to win big races in mountain biking. I hope for my other riders that they are clean, and I have confidence that they are. To be honest, there were times in mountain biking that I believe it has not been clean. There were times when you didn’t know 100-percent that the other guys were not cheating. I must say I don’t have these doubts or feelings these days.

VN: Why not?

CS: You would see these guys and they would have just incredible performances just once or twice a year. You would see who they were coached by and who was on their team. You don’t see that anymore. I mean, you see Filip Meirhaeghe and now he finishes 10th or 15th now. He shows his real ability.

A big difference between [mountain biking] and the road is that we don’t have team managers and soigneurs who come from the road and the drug mentality. We don’t have three-week stage races either.

VN: Are you surprised to see Julien Absalon dominating the sport for four years?

CS: No, it is good when the sport creates stars or when a racer becomes a star. But when every race is won by him that is too much. I know for the final race of the season many of us hope that we can split things up. Before every race I think who can beat Julien? Who can beat Julien?

You know, there were guys who were better than him in the past, but I don’t think they were clean. If Julien had to race against those fully loaded guys he wouldn’t have won, I don’t think so. But I don’t want to judge those performances in the past.

VN: How long do you want to stay racing?

CS: When I finish my career I will hopefully be on top. I’m not going to plan to stop doing cross-country races, but perhaps I will do more marathon. I want to have nice memories of racing and being on top. I will make that decision after next year, but I think I will keep going for the next two or three years. I still love racing and the good lifestyle. Where else do you get so much excitement than in the racing lifestyle?

Dahle-Flesja out for rest of ‘07
Olympic champion Gunn-Rita Dahle-Flesja of the Multivan-Merida team will not contest the 2007 UCI world championships of mountain-bike racing, held September 3-9 in Fort William, Scotland.

The three-time defending world champion suffered a viral infection in her stomach starting in June 2007 and retreated back home to Norway to recover. The Norwegian had planned to return to racing for the 2007 world’s, however after a brief training camp in Italy, Dahle-Flesja decided to abandon her season.

“Ten weeks virtually without any workout have given me a feeling of not being in form,” Dahle-Flesja said. “I have to accept the fact that my racing season has come to a premature end.”

Dahle-Flesja will ride Norway’s popular Birkebeiner Rittet marathon race on August 25 and will fly to Beijing in September to race an Olympic test event on the course that will be used for the 2008 Olympic Games. She will also be present at the 2007 Eurobike trade show.

Kovarik, Van Dine highlight Rocky Mountain G3 Gravity race
Chris Kovarik (Intense) and Chris Van Dine (Cannondale) battled at the second round of the Rocky Mountain G3 gravity series, held August 17-20 at SolVista resort near Graby, Colorado. The competition was a stage-race format featured three races, the Cougar Downhill, Cheeze-IT Super D and Drifter Downhill. The athlete’s with the fastest cumulative teams took home top honors.

Kovarik won the Cougar Downhill and Cheez-IT Super D races, however a badly timed front flat tire knocked him out of the overall in the Drifter Downhill race. Coloradan Todd Olson (Recycled Ski and Sport) took home top honors with Kan Leonard in second and Kovarik in third.

In women’s racing, Canadian Claire Buchar grabbed the overall by 17 seconds over Jackie Harmony (Brodie), with Coloradan Abigail Hippely (Maverick) in third.

Leov out with collarbone break
Yeti-Fox rider Justin Leov of New Zealand will have to miss the 2007 UCI mountain-bike world championships after breaking his right collarbone in two places.

The Kiwi was riding a warm up run during the second round of the Rocky Mountain G3 series in SolVista Colorado when his handlbar snapped. Leov flew to San Jose, California for a reconstructive operation, however he will be out for three to six weeks. Leov won the final round of the 2007 National Mountain Bike downhill series at Snowmass, Colorado on August 12.

Chausson second, Kintner fifth at Olympic at Beijing BMX race
American BMX rider Donny Robinson rode to victory in the official BMX Olympic test event on August 21, 2007 in Beijing, China. Yeti-Fox mountain-bike racer Jared Graves of Australia finished third, crossing the line just after Dutchman Robert de Wilde.

Leading the American women was reigning Four-cross world champion Jill Kintner, who competes with the GT professional mountain-bike team. Kintner sat out the second round of the 2007 Jeep King of the Mountains competition to ride in the event, and will try to defend her world title at the 2007 UCI world mountain-bike championships in Fort William, Scotland.

Finishing a close second in the women’s race was Frenchman Anne-Caroline Chausson, the most-decorated female mountain-bike racer in the history of the sport. Chausson, a 12-time world champion, hopes to add Olympic gold in BMX to her palmarès next year.