Marco Fontana – counting down to the Olympics

In late April, the focus of global cross-country racing was on Cairns, in Tropical North Queensland. The first round of the UCI 2016 XCO World Cup was taking place at Smithfield MTB Park. Along with being a preview for the 2016 UCI MTB World Championships, the race was also the start of a last push for points for many riders hoping to compete in Rio.

We met up with Cannondale Factory Racing star Marco Fontana to talk about racing in Rio, World Cups, their new Scalpel SI – and where he loves to ride and race around the World.

Fontana on Rio and World Cups

“The Olympics is the biggest race every four years, so it's a big deal for me. But the World Cup is actually why we do all this. I'm not saying the Olympics is not my main goal, but the reason we do all this (gesturing to the team house on the beach in Cairns, with numerous staff around) is because of the World Cup. It's a series of races, all over the world, and every year you have six, seven or eight races. It's the top you know. The Olympics is a little different league. It's the most important race in the world, but the World Cup has a magic surrounding – and it's the World Cup!”

Preparing in an Olympic year

While in other years, Fontana has raced the Cape Epic with team mate Manuel Fumic, 2016 was different. Fumic raced with Avincini, and they won the final stage. But as Fontana pointed out, each rider chooses their preparation differently.

“Each of us have our coach, and we all have our own plan to go through the season. Obviously it is an Olympic season, but obviously we are still racing World Cups. The World Cup is still the main business, which means with my coach, we planned to be performing the whole year, the best we can do. And he (Fumic) planned to do the Epic, and I thought this year I might do something different.”

One of the luxuries we don't get in Australia is the absolute plethora of high level events – for a European based competitive racer, there are lots of options of races to do for training, or to gain ranking points, even at the start of the season.

“We were in Cyprus for racing in February, and then in March I had a couple of really good races in Italy, with good competitors like Nino Schurter and the Frenchies. It was my plan to not go to the Cape Epic.”

The life of a professional athlete is often a life spent on the road, without much time at home. I had to ask Fontana if that was also a reason to 'stay local' earlier in the year.

Clearly Cairns isn't Italy.

“When I am racing in Italy I do get to spend more time at home. But on the other hand spending time in South Africa for Mani meant he had two weeks and a big block of training, in the heat and for some reason it could be good preparation for Australia. With the heat, the long days on the bike. It's just a different approach.”

The new Scalpel SI

The reason we were sitting down to meet at the Cannondale Factory Racing team house was their new bike. We took a really close look already, and hope to have one for review shortly. But Fontana was clearly excited that they could now talk about it, after all time time testing it.

“We started testing the new Scalpel last year. It was crucial for us to start testing with the RockShox boys. First of all we were testing the bike, but a full-suspension bike obviously has a lot to do with the rear suspension. We had a few days of testing with RockShox, to make sure we had the right setup for the suspension.”

This is a familiar story – bikes are becoming better with marginal gains now, and a lot of that comes from precise tuning of geometry, and suspension settings.

“The bike is a hell of a good bike, but it's like this because the rear end is combined with a good shock setup. The bike design, and the ideas behind it are amazing. But without the shock working properly, you know, it's for nothing. If it dives in too much, if it's too hard, if it doesn't do the right job, you're not going to use it that much in the open position, where this bike is meant to be used. Otherwise you would just use a hardtail.”

The life of a pro

It is something I have often wondered – with all the places professional racers visit for races, for training, for testing – surely there must be some that are favourites? I had to ask Fontana where his favourite places were to race, to ride, and to train.

“I want to say Mt St Anne in Canada, even though over the last few years the whole setup has become a little smaller, because of Crankworx being in Canada at the same time, the same date, and I think this has brought down the great feeling there was in Mt St Anne. For me, Europeans go to race mountain bikes in Canada for the big roots, and big rocks – it was always my dream you know. So a few years back MSA was very very great. But last years best race location was Val di Sole. Unbelievable crowds, the track was just nuts. Punchy but flowy, so I pick Val di Sole as my current favourite race location.”

Training the house down

“My favourite place for training is Tuscany, it has a little bit of everything you know. Actually, I pick Italy in general, because with Tuscany and Liguria, you have some really technical trails, especially in Luguria with Finale and all those places. But at the same time you have some amazing roads. Road for us if of course a big deal. I'm riding the road bike a lot. For training, you need this, and it's really good.

Just get out and ride

“Livigno is a really good place, but the bad point of Livigno is they don't have many roots on trails. So they have a few downhill trails, like climbing trails. In the US, you have trails that are meant to be climbing trails. California is good for riding but it's a little too dry maybe… In Scotland for example, I love Scotland, actually I pick Scotland as my favourite place to ride. Because, they have unbelievable trails, they have technical stuff, and they sign trails. They will say 'this is a Red trail, it goes up, you are not allowed to go down it'. I remember being in Fort William a couple of times, and for me it was just stunning. Having the signs, good trails and jumps, and I love the colours of Scotland, the lakes, and even if the weather is a bit shitty, I love Scotland.”