It sounded promising: a new Swiss mountain bike team was to compete in the 2025 World Cup with five riders. The line-up included Swiss riders Ramona Forchini, Thomas Litscher, Fabio Püntener, Maxime L'Homme and South African Luke Moir, who all signed their contracts in the fall. Behind the team was former professional cyclist Pirmin Lang, who was responsible for the sporting management of the team. On the business side, Saki Tzikas was responsible for bringing sponsors on board. The supermarket chain Spar also appeared to be a well-known main sponsor. Lang's debut in mountain biking looked promising - but not even on paper.

Tzikas kept quiet for a long time about the fact that Spar never made a commitment to this involvement and even repeatedly turned it down. In order not to let anyone down, he continued to search desperately for sponsors and patrons, but without success. It was not until the end of January 2025 that team boss Lang had to inform the riders that the team would have to be disbanded due to a lack of funding. The required budget had been missed by far. Tzikas took responsibility and explained that he had mistakenly believed that the sponsorship would materialize. This naivety not only disappointed the five riders - it also cost them the opportunity to sign with other teams early on, which threatened to end their careers.

Continue despite disappointment and damage

For the athletes, this was a slap in the face. Especially for the Swiss riders, who have a real chance of starting at the home World Championships in Valais this year, the starting position is now much more difficult. Finding a team at this point in time is almost impossible. Only Fabio Püntener has been allowed back into the care of Bike Team Solothurn, with whom he was previously under contract.

Püntener's temporary teammates are now trying to make racing possible with their own resources. Thomas Litscher and Luke Moir launched crowdfunding campaigns to cover the costs of the racing season. "The news that the team was being disbanded with immediate effect came extremely late. This makes it practically impossible to find another team, so now I'm without one. Despite this setback, I am still determined to ride races. However, I now have to take the privateer route, which involves considerable costs. Any support would mean the world to me in overcoming this challenge," says Moir, who finished second at the U23 World Cup in Canada and was entered by South Africa as a reserve rider for the Olympic Games in Paris.

And Litscher is also sticking with racing: "After over 15 years in professional sport, it wouldn't be a nice end to have to end my career in this way and at my current level of performance." He also wants to start the season as a private rider, but has been able to join a small team that at least offers him support at the World Cups. The 35-year-old is confident and wants to regularly finish in the top 15 in the World Cup again, and even ride back onto the podium in the short track. Litscher also has his sights set on the World Championships: He is aiming for a medal there, having already won a World Championship medal in short track in 2022. In order to prepare perfectly despite the difficult conditions and to be able to put this work into practice at the first World Cups, Litscher has to dig deep into his pockets. That's why he has launched a funding campaign on "I Believe in You".

"I'm doing everything I can to continue my sporting career," says Ramona Forchini. "My first competition will be on February 23 in Banyoles, Spain. There's a lot going on at the moment and I'll finally be able to announce some big news at the end of February!" She has the equipment for the season, but the 30-year-old is also dependent on financial support in order to be able to pursue her sporting ambitions this season. Forchini is therefore looking forward to new additions to her patron club, whose membership fees will help her to bridge the financial gap.

NZZ report worth reading

The Neue Zürcher Zeitung has taken up this topic and provided a detailed account of the debacle surrounding the planned team. The article is worth reading and can be found at nzz.ch.