After three consecutive second-place finishes in the men’s junior downhill World Cup, Durango’s Asa Vermette finally broke through with his first World Cup win of the season in Lenzerheide, Switzerland, on Saturday. Savilia Blunk almost made it two riders with Durango connections on the top step of the podium in Lenzerheide.
Blunk was in the lead of the women’s elite cross-country Olympic (XCO) race on Sunday and was looking strong before an uncharacteristic crash while in the lead during the third lap of seven. Blunk lost the lead and 30 seconds to the leaders before she got up. She battled back and found herself in third for her second podium finish of the season.
If Blunk could’ve avoided the crash, she could’ve been on for her first women’s elite World Cup win. Alas, Vermette was the sole representative of Durango on the top step of a podium as he closes in on the men’s junior World Cup overall title with two races left.
“I was stoked on it,” Vermette said. “The weather was sick all weekend, the lift was fast and the truck was super sick and fun to ride. I was stoked to win qualifying and finals. It felt good to win the last junior race in Europe for me.”
Vermette finished the 1.84-kilometer in two minutes and 44.707 seconds. Jonty Williamson finished second in 2:49.491 and Oli Clark was third in 2:50.463.
In classic Vermette style, he started the first split a little slower and didn’t have the lead. Then he showed his speed and skill by having the fastest Split 2 by over 1.5 seconds. Vermette increased his gap to over four seconds in Split 3 and 4 for a dominant victory.
Next up for Vermette is the World Cup in Lake Placid, New York, on Oct. 3-5. He is only 22 points behind Max Alran in the men’s junior downhill standings with the Lake Placid and Mont-Sainte-Anne races left.
“It's super tight with the points, so it's cool making it good racing,” Vermette said. “We'll see, I’m not too worried about (the points) I’m just trying to go race it one race at a time.”
Blunk finished her XCO race in 1:24:35, 25 seconds behind Alessandra Keller in first and nine seconds behind Jenny Rissveds in second.
“I have a little bit of mixed feelings,” Blunk said. “I'm super proud of the race because of how I was able to really go for it before the crash. I've been trying to go for it a lot, but some things have happened, whether it's mechanical or crash in front of me, or just chaos. I had a good start in front, I was really going for it and then I made a big mistake … I'm really proud that I could collect myself after a big slam like that. It makes me really excited for the last two World Cups of the year.”
After Blunk’s strong XCC performance where she finished seventh, she started on the front row in the XCO, which was a huge advantage. Blunk had a solid start and was in the top six early in the start loop.
Once again, Rissveds blew up the front of the race with an early attack in the start loop. Blunk reacted well and was fourth as she and Evie Richards tried to bridge the gap to the front.
Blunk showed her superb form by closing the gap to the front two at the start of the first lap; she was only a second back of the front.
The former Fort Lewis College rider made the move on her Ford Decathlon teammate, Samara Maxwell, for second in the middle of the second lap. Blunk showed her strong pace and quickly caught up to Rissveds.
“I'm in really good form right now,” Blunk said. “I trained a lot for worlds as my peak of the season. So now that form carries over to the end of the season, which is great.”
For the first time in a while, Blunk led an XCO. She powered through the multiline section, took a different line to Rissveds and made the pass toward the end of the second lap.
Blunk led Rissveds and Keller in the third lap when disaster struck. She was going into a small downhill section, tried to adjust her glasses on her helmet and went down hard at high speed.
“I was a little bit too comfortable, took my hand off the bar to adjustment my glasses and flipped,” Blunk said. “My hand was wet because we'd been taking dump bottles and I slipped on the bar.”
Blunk said she was lucky to be okay after such a high-speed crash. She has some road rash on her back and some soreness, but other than that she’s fine. Blunk took a second to check her head, gets balanced again and get back on her bike. During that time, she lost 30 seconds and got on her bike in third.
After the crash, Blunk dropped down into the middle of the chase group in fifth in the fourth lap. She moved into fourth in the fifth lap and had some work to do to chase down Richards in third.
The mountain bike gods gave Blunk a break after her tough crash. Blunk was elevated into third on the last lap as a fast-charging Richards had to pull over with a flat, elevating Blunk to third.
Blunk wasn’t even focused on third on the final lap. She wanted to get the race over with by pushing as hard as she could after a crazy race.
On Friday, Blunk finished seventh in the women’s elite XCC race in 20:33. Rissveds won the race in 20:07, followed by Richards in second in 20:09 and Ronja Blöchlinger finished third in 20:28.
Blunk didn’t have the best start and was 17th and 14 seconds back after the first lap. In the first lap, there was a moment going into a downhill roots section where Blunk and two other riders got tangled up, causing Blunk to unclip and lose a lot of time.
Over the next few laps, Blunk made some steady progress in positions and time to the leaders. She was ninth at the start of the fourth lap and was in a decent position as the lead group and chase group merged into one.
However, the top four once again broke away, leaving Blunk at the front of the chase group in sixth and nine seconds back in the fifth lap.
The top two of Rissveds and Richards pulled away from the rest of the field in the last few laps, leaving Blunk to fight in the chase group. Blunk finished a few seconds back of the chase group in seventh.
Christopher Blevins is still working toward wrapping up the men’s elite cross-country World Cup overall title. He finished 26th in the men’s elite XCC race and 27th in the men’s elite XCO race in Lenzerheide.
The 27-year-old finished the men’s elite XCC race in 22:11, 43 seconds behind his Specalized Factory Racing teammate, Victor Koretzky, in first.
Blevins was a little bit ill, but was fit enough to race and pick up some valuable points in the XCC and overall standings at his favorite course of the year.
On Sunday, Blevins finished the men’s elite XCO race in 1:23:57, 3:34 behind Alan Hatherly in first.
Blevins felt good early in the race and thought he might’ve been on for a top-five finish, before a Lap 2 incident changed everything.
“I broke my chain, which was not on the plan,” Blevins said. “It was a kind of an unavoidable moment in traffic where someone jumped right in front of me, after having a mechanic on their own, and I smacked my training like super hard on a walk when I had nowhere to go. So I'm lucky it was a not catastrophic where I couldn’t finish, but obviously a chain snap takes a while to fix and to get to the pit.”
Blevins was all the way back in the 70s after getting his chain fixed. He recognized that it’s always harder to push while in traffic and he was satisfied with salvaging some decent points.
The men’s elite cross-country overall leader, Blevins has the chance to wrap up the overall title in Lake Placid, New York, in the next round. He thinks if he finishes inside the top 10 in short track, he’ll have that title sealed. Blevins also thinks there’s a chance he could seal the overall title (XCC +XCO) in Lake Placid with a good result.
Not too far behind Blevins in the men’s XCO race was Riley Amos, who finished in 34th in 1:24:36.
Bailey Cioppa also competed in Lenzerheide and finished 26th in the women’s U-23 XCC race and 27th in the women’s U-23 XCO race.
The UCI Mountain Bike World Cup resumes in Lake Placid on Oct. 3-5.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
