Our athlete Manfred Zöger already uses our newest product – the Chase Carbon seatposts – for test runs. He is checking them in various conditions. After being tested in the lab, Manfred uses them under real strains for different cross-races.
In the betting game of the MTB-news.de the results of the UCI XC Worldcup 2017 were to be estimated in advance. There were 7 events, where you had to guess as correctly as possible the cyclists on the winner’s podium and the winners. The overall winner of the season’s betting game gets a Scott Spark 940. At this amount of participants, the chances to win are not high.
But Manfred won even though – he collected under the nickname mani161699 352 points und won the Scott Bike.
Receiving his prize personally, he went to Garching near Munich in Germany. For the last 3 competitions Manfred started to use an Excel File in order to have the best overview for his betting. “The betting simply is fun”, he commented on that.
After a short guidance tour through the Scott site in Germany and a short introduction of the Spark 940, Manfred went on the trails in the North of Munich with two Scott employees. Of course, the new bike has to be tested and cycled.
p2m bike tuesday: Manfred präsentiert seinen Scott Addict CX mit unseren NG SRAM Powermeter. Viel zu sauber für einen Crosser, oder? 😉
Posted by power2max on Dienstag, 14. November 2017
On 4th and 5th November the MTB Club Lockenhaus organised a cross-country race taking place in Burgenland for the first time in a long time. Just a short distance from the Bucklige Welt, the event was so to speak a home race for Manfred. He used the opportunity and was already on site several times the week before for training.
The knowledge of the track has paid off. Manfred was in the lead during the first race on Saturday. For a long time it was an exciting fight between him, Michael Holland and Gerald Hauer. In the last two laps Manfred had the greater potential and so he could celebrate his second victory in cross-country after the race in Ternitz. Felix also showed a strong performance and finished 13th after 1:06 driving time.
The race on Sunday was similar at the beginning. Manfred was in the lead right from the start, his first pursuers were Tom Mair and Gerald Hauer. But even before the half of the race Manfred was able to put himself in the lead. He expanded his lead slowly and continuously. Every round there were a few more seconds. In the end he won by almost one minute, the Czech Jirí Krivanek and the experienced Tom Mair. Felix had to register a small slip and lost thereby a few places. Nevertheless, he finished 18th again in the top 20.
Finally a congratulation to the MTB Club Lockenhaus – it was a more than successful premiere event and the cross-country community would be very happy about a follow-up in the coming year in any case!
Friday, Oct 27th the first date of the popular training-race-series ‘Wiener Bahn-O-Rama‘ was hold in Vienna. It’s the second year for this event that consists of 5 competition dates for the ‘Cup’. The next dates follow from November till February 2018. The evening cycling event started with two qualifying races and afterwards there were two point race events. The performance in the qualifying races determines whether the cyclist starts in the A-race of 60 rounds or the B-race with 30 rounds. Every 10th round, there is some extra points for the round winner. That’s why especially in round 10, 20, 30 and so on there is sprints for the round victory.
Our athlete Felix shortly decided to registrate and represent Team Chase.
Due to an hasty start and a wrong assessing of his combatants in the first eliminating race, Felix had to start in the point-race B. Even more he wanted to show an excellent performance in this race and started to attack directly after the first round. Luckily, a gap appeared and Felix reached a clear edge until the round was won. With the energy of this attack and the advantage due to the #chaseCX rims, he finally got to the lead only accompanied by Joshua Hayes. Felix succeeded in fighting for the final victory. He could finish as first with 55 points in this B-race.
With this satisfying result the first evening of the Bahn-O-Rama in Vienna was over.
The 21st and 22nd of October, two cyclo-cross events in Ternitz took place. Manfred participated in both competetions and showed high performances. From the beginning of the national race at Saturday, he was part of the leading group. This consisted of four cyclists, later reduced to three athletes. Manfred was able to keep this position and maintained all fast acceleration parts. He decided not to cycle in the first position but as second or third cycler. In the round prior to the final round he started to attack – and it was too strong for the opponents. In this round he was the only one who managed to stay on the bike during the uphill part. His combatants had to get off the bike and carry it for some meters. There was a small gap but Manfred did not give away this lead. He strived hard for victory, used all his energie and succeeded to be the first crossing the finish line.
This success was the highlight in this successful season start for the 27-years old cyclist till now. In the first two competitions in Traun and Langenzersdorf, he reached the second place. In his third cross-race he succeeded to win – at the same time it’s the first victory for our Chase Mud-rim.
At Sunday, there was an international race of the C2-world ranking list. Fighting against european elite athletes was a tough challenge for Manfred. Additionally, rain started and conditions got more and more demanding. For his success from the precedent day, Manfred’s legs have already been suffering. He finished as 12th and narrowly missed the Top-10. Nevertheless, with this perfomance he was the best Austrian in the international biker surrounding.
In this beautiful autumn day, the conditions were perfect for a cross-race. Head off to the Seeschlacht in Langenzersdorf just next to Vienna: the athletes of Team Chase all showed a very good performance at the ‘King & Queen of Seeschlacht’. Our Chase Mud-rims – available as disk version and as rim-brake version – were perfect to fight in those tough race conditions.
Felix Ritzinger, Manfred Zöger, Bernhard Weis, handcrafted in Austria, Carbon, Felge, Grenzgasse 111 9/6/6, St. Gabriel, Felix Schneider, Peter Fröhlich, Chase, Seeschlacht, King and Queen of Seeschlacht, Langenzersdorf
The specific cross-country rims give comfort in the long straight but turbulent passages and at the same time enable the cyclist to pass trough the sharp curves fast. Our athlete Manfred Zöger reached with an excellent performance the second place in the overall standing in the 60′ elite-race behind a cyclist from Hungary. Second cross-race and second position on the podium. After his disease, Felix Ritzinger showed also that he is a powerful cyclist. He showed a good performance and for the next races you can definitely count on a position on the winner’s rostrum. Felix Schneider was one of the strongest bikers in the 40′ race. After catching up from a rear starting position he reached the leading group. He finished with a good performance and finally reached the third row in the overall standings.
A great day for Team Chase.
Handcrafted Carbon Wheels applied in the tough race conditions. See more #chasecx #KingofSeeschlacht #Langenzersdorf
In honour of the St. Gabriel site with its red clinker facade and red baking tile tower, a magazine called ‘aufgegabelt’ was published. The home of the Chase GmbH was already built under Emperor Franz-Joseph 1. and was to serve as a city within the city at that time. Today the versatile use of this building ranges from a wedding cake shop to a bookbinder and of course Chase GmbH.
Our rooms of the former bakery in St.Gabriel are well adapted to our daily work needs and were beautifully presented during a shooting for our article in the magazine.
The development and handmade production of innovative carbon components is progressing well, especially because Peter Fröhlich and Felix Schneider show enthusiasm and 100% commitment. But sometimes help comes from a few motivated students who can gain a lot of experience in carbon production in a great atmosphere.
Manfred started his Cross-season 2017 yesterday. He chose an event in Traun in Upper Austria for his kick-off.
“Until the end of the second round I managed to catch up from the rear position that I had to start from. I now reached the leading group. From then, I could overtake the leading position every now and then. Due to some speed attacks the group got smaller. In the second half of the race there was a strong offensive by Philipp Heigl. I needed a whole round to catch up again. After that we were two at the leading position, but Andreas Hofer was only a few meters behind us. In this formation we started into the two last rounds. Most of the time I was cycling in the front position and was trying to keep the distance between me and my opponent. But he was cycling right behind me like a shadow.Finally, in the last bend, 300 meters to the finish line, the most important seconds followed. Philipp Heigl started to speed up amazingly and I couldn’t follow him – this gap remained and I wasn’t able to catch up anymore. Obviously, there was a narrow distance and missing the victory so shortly is teasing. My opponent was better today – huge respect to his performance – and the second position is also a good result.”
Of course it’s a pity to miss the victory shortly, but gratulation though to the excellent performance of Manfred.
Just in time for the start of the cyclocross season the new specific cross-country rims made by Chase are ready to be used. Manfred came to our manufacture in Maria Enzersdorf to receive his individual rims and pick them up personally.
Manfred Zöger, handcrafted in Austria, Carbon, Felge, Grenzgasse 111 9/6/6, St. Gabriel, Felix Schneider, Peter Fröhlich, Chase
These new Chase carbon rims are high quality products handcrafted in Austria. Two types of cross country rims are available – a version for rim brakes and a disk-version. He is looking forward to his first competition the following weekend – the Crossrace Action Day des RC SK Vöest. He’ll cycle and check out his new “Chase mud” rims.
See more on Manfred Zöger – Radsport