2026 season bike and kit drop + 3rd place at HC Bundesliga race in Heubach

It's finally time to present my 2026 season kit designed and sponsored by fingerscrossed and my special painted Avona Silva race bike! I'm so happy that everything worked out in the final days before my first race in Germany - my second home race in Heubach aka. BiketheRock. The monochrome look is part of the DNA of fingerscrossed and with only my main partners logos on it, I think we kept that clean and classy design. Contrary to that, for me, the design of my new Avona Silva frame represents the aggressiveness and agility of this very lightweight race machine and gives it the attention it deserves.

As I said, on the kit you can spot the logos of my main partners: Festool and Sanct Bernhard Sport. Festool, together with Tanos, will support me with professional electric tools and organizing systems for my tools and spare parts. Sanct Bernhard Sport is my partner for sports nutrition and therefore plays a vital role in my everyday training and in competitions. Both companies have their headquarters in the region where I live and I'm really happy to be able to come by bike to meetings or future events. The third regional company on my jersey is Scholderbeck, a organic and local bakery with not only the best pretzels I know and so they also play an important role in my nutrition. Furthermore, you can find Zefal and Jublo, both French companies, whose quality bike accessories and helmets/glasses I enjoy already since last year. A big thanks to those 5 partners who play a big role in my season 2026.

Back to racing in Germany! After the unsatisfying first event of the UCI MTB World Series in Mona Yongpyong in South Korea, I decided to participate in my new home race in Heubach, also known as BiketheRock. The Horse Categorie ranked event is just 50 km away from my new home and I was able to ride there for a track practice by bike the weekend before the race. This helped me to keep the organizational effort lower than usual and to already get an idea of which tires to test in the very short final training on Saturday. My prediction with the tires was good (front: Racing Rick 2.4 soft, rear: Racing Rick 2.4 prototype) and I had a great feeling in the race for both grip and rolling resistance over the steep and partially slippery course.

In general, I'm really happy with how the race unfolded. After a good start, I was in a group with the three other strongest German riders of the last years and going into the second lap, I decided to take the chase of the leader into my own hands. We didn't catch him, back but the chase fractured the group slowly and it was only one other rider, Julian Schelb, remaining with me. Unfortunately, with 2 laps to go, I had to let go of Julian and save some energy. In the last lap I was almost caught by another rider from behind, Lennart Krayer, but I was able to separate myself again in the penultimate downhill and keep the gap open until the finish line.

The 60 points I gained with the 3rd spot in Heubach will be crucial for my start at the short track race at the UCI MTB World Series in Nove Mesto na Morave in Czechia this weekend. I hope, it's enough to be in the top40. Now, I'm really looking forward to ride my bike and find a good setup on this unique and prestigious course in Nove Mesto, probably my favorite track at the moment in the World Series.