Durango’s Howard Grotts pedaled his way to a 12th-place finish at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships men’s under-23 race Friday in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa.
Grotts, a Durango DEVO alumnus who now rides for Fort Lewis College, finished 4 minutes, 14 seconds behind race winner Gerhard Kerschbaumer of Italy and was the top American finisher out of four participants.
Kerschbaumer finished with a comfortable 58-second gap on runner-up Julian Schelb of Germany. Michiel Van Der Heijden of the Netherlands was third, while New Zealand’s Anton Cooper and France’s Julien Trarieux rounded out the top five.
American Keegan Swenson finished 18th, 5:26 behind, and countrymen Russell Finsterwald and Kerry Werner finished 26th and 42nd, respectively, in the 56-rider field.
Durangoan Todd Wells will hit the track Saturday in South Africa in the men’s elite race as the World Championships draw to a close. Local cyclist Kaylee Blevins finished 16th in Thursday’s women’s juniors race.
heraldsports@durangoherald.com
