Marco Aurelio Fontana is faster than you.

The cross country programme at the 2014 World Championships in Haifjell (Norway) has drawn to a close on Saturday September 6th, and did it on a high for Northwave, bagging its third medal in the week thanks to an exciting performance by Italian Marco Aurelio Fontana in the Elite Men race.

Already an Olympic bronze medallist in his career, Fontana enjoyed a fantastic debut in his new Extreme Tech MTB Plus Camo, winning his first individual World Championship bronze medal at the end of a breath-taking showdown against Germans Moritz Milatz and fellow Northwave rider Manuel Fumic, respectively 4th and 5th on the finishing line. Frenchman Julian Absalon managed to rub off a tough start to come out at the distance and dominate the race on a very technical route, winning his 5th XC World title in the process. Swiss Nino Schurter was runner-up in spite of a severe crash on the very last descent, possibly causing a wrist injury.

Fontana put his talent and experience to good use into the final lap, when he had to resist a strong comeback from the German duo, never losing his focus and taking full advantage of his bike handling prowess to re-open the gap on the descent sections and hold a 5 second margin on Milatz.

Marco Aurelio Fontana's result topped a long list of strong performance in the race from the Northwave athletes, as no less than six riders equipped with Northwave Extreme Tech MTB Plus ended in the race top-15: behind Fontana and Fumic, Josè Antonio Hermida (Spain) came home in 9th place, followed by Ralph Naef in 10th, Andrea Tiberi (Italy) in 13th and Rudi Van Houts (Belgium) in 14th.

Fontana's bronze for Northwave followed Kathrin Stirnemann's gold in Women's Cross Country Eliminator and yesterday's silver by young Dane Malene Degn in the Junior Women event.

In the morning, European Cross Country Champion, Slovenian Tanja Zakelj had grazed another podium for Northwave, taking fourth in the women's race dominated by Canadian Catharine Pendrel. In the same race, two more bikers equipped with Extreme Tech MTB Plus, German Sabine Spitz and the Norwegian Gunn-Rita Dahle, placed eighth and ninth respectively.