Durango’s Riley Amos continues to show he’s a level above his men’s U-23 competitors during this season’s UCI Mountain Bike World Cup.
Last weekend, the World Cup took place in Crans-Montana, Valais, Switzerland. While the location and track layout changed, the results didn’t change for Amos despite challenging conditions with a lot of rain and mud.
On Friday, Amos won the men’s U-23 cross-country short track race with a time of 20 minutes and 39 seconds. He finished two seconds ahead of his Trek Factory Racing teammate and fellow American Bjorn Riley.
Amos once again finished first in the men’s U-23 cross-country Olympic race on Saturday. The Durangoan dominated the 18.30-kilometer race which included a 1.3 km start loop and five laps around the 3.4 km track. Amos crossed the finish line at 1:08:34, 37 seconds ahead of Riley in second place.
Riders were covered in mud by the end of the race as the track was slippery and muddy, with some of the climbs unrideable which made the riders run up them with their bikes.
“Nothing like a little rain to make a party,” Amos wrote on Instagram. “So much fun sliding around out there, stoked for the whole team today and everyone who made it through that one!”
He also said it was the hardest and most difficult race of his U-23 career.
Amos has a commanding lead in the men’s U-23 World Cup standings. He’s won four out of the five short track races and has won all five of the cross-country Olympic races.
Durango’s Christopher Blevins had a nice start to his weekend and finished fourth in the short track race on Saturday. Blevins finished with a time of 19:40, which was nine seconds behind race winner Thomas Pidcock.
“Dance floor type descents - quite a different short track course than most out here,” Blevins wrote on Instagram on Saturday after his short track race. “I made it through smoothly for fourth but needed a little bit more for the podium. It's taken me a couple of practice days to embrace the conditions, but actually excited about how wild it'll be for tomorrow, and kind of hoping it rains. As long as we don't all have to run the climbs!”
After starting the World Cup season by winning in Brazil and having podiums in the first three races, Blevins has not finished on the podium in the last two rounds of the World Cup.
Although Blevins said he was kind of hoping it rained, he struggled in the men’s elite cross-country Olympic race on Sunday and finished 35th out of 94 riders who finished the race. Blevins finished with a time of 1:34:42, which was 8:14 behind winner Thomas Pidcock.
Blevins started the race in the teens in the start loop but fell back in the slippery and muddy conditions in the first lap.
Durango native and current Fort Lewis cyclist Bailey Cioppa was also in Crans-Montana. She finished 28th in the women’s U-23 short track race with a time of 23:43 on Friday. This was 2:45 behind winner Emily Johnston.
Cioppa also finished 40th in the women’s U-23 cross-country Olympic race on Sunday with a time of 1:21:27, 14:51 behind winner Olivia Onesti.
Also in that race on Sunday was Durango’s Lauren Aggeler. This year’s Iron Horse winner struggled in the tricky conditions and finished in 56th, two laps down from Onesti.
“It was so frustrating because we got there and the weather was amazing,” Aggeler said. “It was so nice and then the next day it downpoured and rained. You couldn't see the mountains the whole weekend because it was raining constantly. Obviously, from Durango, we don't really get rain. I felt really not stoked on the conditions. The course was crazy and it would have been a really fun course if it was dry. But with it being so wet and muddy, you had to run all the uphills and everything was so technical and loose and slippery.”
Aggeler said she just wanted to make it around the course and her expectations went out the window because of the conditions. She lost her confidence in those conditions. Despite crashing on the last lap on the pavement, she said it was good experience to race in those types of conditions.
In the World Cup race in Les Gets, France, Aggeler is hoping to be able to race short-track. Since the first two rounds of the World Cup, Aggeler hasn’t finished high enough to qualify for the short-track events in the last two rounds she competed in. Aggeler thinks she has a higher chance of racing short-track in Les Gets because not as many riders will be there.
Durango’s Ivan Sippy also struggled in the tough conditions and finished 90th in the men’s U-23 cross-country Olympic race two laps down.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
