2012 UCI World Champion, four-time silver-medallist and three times bronze medalist at the UCI World Championships between 2011 and 2017 are just some of the highlights of his long and successful international career. In addition, Schneider has been crowned Swiss national champion eight times and is a seven-time Swiss Cup winner.
Schneider is the only player to have been involved in the UCI Cycle-ball World Cup since the first edition in 2002. During his career to date, he has completed 69 tournaments with six different partners. Throughout that long run it was only the 2006 season that Schneider was not present. On his return he was all the more successful with new partner Dominik Planzer; together, the Swiss pair won the overall final four times between 2007 and 2015. In total, the goalkeeper Schneider has 15 tournament victories, 18 second and nine third places in the world's highest UCI series for the discipline.
On to Altdorf
Schneider will make a historic 70th UCI World Cup appearance this weekend at this season’s round being held in the historic Swiss town of Altdorf. Together with his newest partner Fabian Hauri, he recently secured bronze at the Swiss Championships. As the second representative of the tournament host RS Altdorf, the duo will compete this round of the UCI World Cup as a wildcard entry.
Throughout the last two decades, home UCI World Cup games have traditionally been a cause for celebration for Roman Schneider. In the five UCI tournaments held in Altdorf so far, the 39-year-old has alway found his way onto the podium, twice as a winner (2012 and 2017), twice as the second placed team (2010 and 2015) and once in third position (2018).
The declared goal of Schneider and Hauri coming into Altdorf 2021 is to reach the semi-finals. And that’s a realistic ambition. The toughest competitors they are set to face in the preliminary round group II are the 2019 German league winners and two-time national third-placed duo, André Kopp and Raphael Kopp (RV Obernfeld/GER) and the Belgian team of Brecht Damen and Niels Dirikx (HZG Beringen).
Inspiration awaits
It’s difficult to predict who might top the two groups of Division One. Among the favourites are the Czech Republic’s Jan Havlicek/ Robert Zvolanek (Brno), who finished fourth in their debut at the UCI Indoor Cycling World Championships at the end of October. They will meet the Swiss Lukas Schönenberger/ Andreas Zaugg (RMV Mosnang) as well as the German pair of Robert Mlady/ Michael Birkner (RMC Stein). Likewise, Patrick Köck/ Pascal Fontain (RV Dornbirn) currently the second best team from Austria, could make it into the preliminary round.
There is certainly great anticipation for the Altdorf mascot Wilhelm Telly. The black bull used lockdown to improve his dancing skills, which were recently cheered by several thousand spectators at the UCI Indoor Cycling World Championships in Stuttgart, and can shoot well too!
Whether that will serve to inspire Roman Schneider to reach or exceed his ambitions and hit the podium along with Fabian Hauri, remains to be seen. The action is Altdorf starts on Saturday at 11am. The final round will be played from 6.30pm.