Starting into season 2018 as an elite-team

With the publication of the first global Team-ranking of 2018 it turned out perfect: Joe Broder’s outfit jb Brunex Felt is ranked among the best 15 cross-country teams and starts with the elite status into a new age.

The competitive season begins for Thomas Litscher, third at the world championships, and his team mates in Cyprus in the upcoming week. Litscher counts on the family cohesion within the team as a basis for a successful year.

The letters of the United Cycling Federation (UCI) suddenly arrived at Joe Broder’s house: his former youth squad developed into an UCI elite team, which is the appreciation for his hard work as team leader for years.
“Of course I was very happy about it. It confirmed our continuous track, which we followed since 2011. Moving forward has been my goal ever since. To stand still is to go backwards, so to me it seemed logical to strive for the elite status”, Joe Broder explains. “Especially after Thom joined our team and the season 2017 turned out so successful with him and Sina Frei. But without my wife Lisa supporting me in everything, this would not have been possible.”
The mentioned athlete, Thomas Litscher, is full of respect for his team leader. “It is great that Joe expands his team”, says the bronze-medalist of the world championships and points out the atmosphere within the team: “We have got to be one big family and work together. I am convinced, if we go well together, we can achieve good performances.”

All wheels have to gear into each other
This is Joe Broder’s philosophy. That is what he was aiming for while developing the team. But to be an elite-team you need to have strong partners by your side. “Thanks to our strong roots within the economy and especially our excellent relationship to Brunex, we were able to strike up conversation with Adelheid Morath, Lisi Osl, Ramona Forchini and Max Foidl. At the same time we could bring in Felt even more with this package”, Broder illustrates the transformation from a youth into an elite-team. And on top of that he is very pleased that Felt again is amongst the big players. According to him a big bike-brand such as Felt simply belongs to the world’s best in mountain biking.
To establish and lead such a team, you require “an ounce of luck for all wheels gearing into each other”, Joe Broder refers to the internal combination.
For him and his wife Lisa, it has always been “an affair of their heart” to foster young talents and in this way the youth section will remain apart from the elite-team. This is not only a logistic but also a monetary challenge the athletes are well aware about.

Morath: A good feeling to be on the road with the team
“We are a small, familiar team where everyone needs to contribute a lot of self-responsibility, which is good! It is important to have a good atmosphere”, explains Adelheid Morath, who will be competing in the famous Cape Epic stage race with the south African athlete Candice Lill at the end of march.
All five athletes of the elite-team met on Gran Canaria during their training camps. “To be with my team mates is completely straightforward, there are good vibes and a good feeling to be on the road with them”, says the German, who participated twice in the Olympic Games.

Kick-off in Cyprus
The first races of the season will be taking place in Cyprus. The first results will be announced from Thursday (22.2.) on from the Afxentia stage race. These four days of racing will be used as preparation for the first worlcup of the season in Stellenbosch, South Africa (10.3.). It is kind of a rehearsal for the flow within the new sports-familiy and to find the ideal setup for their Felt-bikes.
On the island in the Mediterranean Sea for the athletes it is all about getting into the race mode during the four stages in Lefkara and Lythrodontas. But as Thomas Litscher puts it in a nutshell: “every race means all out!!”
The course is set, be curious.