Alexandre Balmer was one of the great young talents in cross country, but was already often to be found in road races. The Frenchman is now moving from the Thömus RN team to the UCI WorldTour team "BikeExchange Jayco", with whom he will take part in the Tour de Romandie, among other things. Nevertheless, Balmer still wants to compete in some mountain bike races.

The Mountain Bike Race Series, the successor series to the EKZ Cup, is planning its 2022 season with six races. It starts in Schwändi on April 24, followed by Wetzikon on May 22, Hittnau on June 26, Uster on July 3, Eschenbach on August 28 and the finale on September 11 in Egg.

The KMC-Orbea team is re-equipping. Following the departure of Victor Koretzky and Thomas Litscher, Janika Lõiv from Estonia, Sebastian Fini Carstensen from Denmark and Norwegian Erik Hægstad will be riding for the French racing team in the 2022 season.

For his first U23 season, Swiss rider Nils Aebersold is switching to the German junior team Trek-Vaude. Aebersold's career highlights to date include winning the bronze medal at the U19 World Championships in Val di Sole.

Possibly the biggest young talent on the mountain bike scene will be wearing the colors of the Cannondale Factory Racing Team in the coming season. The Austrian U23 world champion and elite world champion in the marathon discipline, Mona Mitterwallner, will be joining Henrique Avancini and Co.

National mountain bike coach Edi Telser is honored with the title "Coach of the Year 2021" at the Sports Awards. Jolanda Neff comes second, while Mathias Flückiger and Nino Schurter do not make it into the top three. Tennis player Belinda Bencic and skier Marco Odermatt were named Swiss Athlete of the Year 2021.