To say Durango’s Riley Amos dominated the first part of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup Men’s U-23 season would be an understatement. At the first five World Cup events, Amos won all but one of the five cross-country Olympic (XCO) and five cross-country short track (XCC) races.
Therefore, Amos had a huge points lead in the men’s U-23 individual standings before the Olympic break. After the Olympic break, Amos didn’t have to do much to secure the men’s U-23 overall title.
After two top-five finishes in Lake Placid, New York, in the penultimate round, Amos finished the World Cup season at Mont-Sainte-Anne in Québec, Canada, with a seventh place in XCC and a 13th place in XCO last weekend. Amos finished the Men’s U-23 XCO and XCC World Champion.
“We set big goals this year and worked really hard for them, and came home with almost everything we put our mind to, so this feels like icing on an amazing cake,” Amos wrote on Instagram.
Amos finished the men’s U-23 XCC race on Thursday in seventh in 20 minutes after nine laps around the 0.68-mile short track. Dario Lillo won the race in 19:49.
On Friday, Amos finished 13th in the men’s U-23 XCO race in 1:11.07 after a 1.86-mile long start loop and six laps around the 2.17-mile course. Lillo won the race in 1:08:13.
Contrary to Amos, Durango’s Savilia Blunk had a lot to race for at Mont-Sainte-Anne. She was in the middle of a battle for position in the women’s elite standings. Blunk finished her ultra-consistent World Cup season with a seventh-place finish in the women’s elite XCC and a 10th-place finish in the women’s elite XCO race. These results secured fifth place in the women’s elite standings for Blunk.
“I'm feeling really happy to be done with the World Cup season,” Blunk said. “I’m really proud of my season. Mont-Sainte-Anne is such a beast of a course to finish on at the last World Cup of the season. The track is so physical and technical, which I love. But it's a super challenging course. I didn't have my best on Sunday, but I gave it everything I had. I am really proud of my season.”
Blunk finished the XCC race on Friday in seventh in 22:02, nine seconds behind winner Sina Frei after nine laps on the 0.68-mile short track course. She said the fast and powerful XCC course didn’t suit her very well.
She had a decent start and was near the front and was sixth after the first lap. Blunk was at the end of the leading group and was 12th in the beginning of the fourth lap only a second down
The group decreased in size to start the fifth lap and by the seventh lap, Blunk was up to fifth. On the final lap, Blunk tried to make a move early in the lap but couldn’t keep up with the pace. Blunk finished seventh in a three-way sprint for sixth.
On Saturday, the XCO course was wet but the mud wasn’t sticking, according to Blunk. She loves those conditions because it requires skill and precision on descents.
Blunk finished the women’s elite XCO race in 10th in 1:22:03. Loana Lecomte won the race in 1:19:01 after the start loop plus the six laps around the course.
“In the cross-country I had a terrible start,” Blunk said. “I felt like I had no power off the line and felt swarmed. Then I put in a really big effort on the start climb to make it back to the front. I paid for that after I did that. I didn't have the best legs to begin with, but maybe with a little bit better pacing I could have worked my way into the race a little bit more.”
After her poor start, Blunk gained time in some of the technical sections in the first lap. Blunk was in seventh to start lap two right 22 seconds behind leader Lecomte. Later in the race, Jenny Rissveds passed Blunk but Blunk stuck with her and the two worked together for a few laps
An odd moment happened when Rebecca Henderson fell into a 3-foot river gap which stopped Blunk at the end of lap five and forced Blunk to walk into that gap and lose time.
“There's a section where the course splits,” Blunk said. “There's an A-line and a B-line. On the A-line, there's a few rock features and then there's this little river gap. Beck (Henderson) was right in front of both of us and we just came up on her and she was off her bike walking the gap jump and the river gap. Everything happened so fast and I was so surprised … Jenny made this split decision to cut over onto the B-line, which the rules are kind of vague if that's legal or not. I was about to go with her, but then I hesitated and was thinking about my overall position. I decided to walk the river gap.”
Blunk was caught by a chasing group and dropped down to 10th to start lap five. She fought back well in a big group of six to get up to eighth into some technical parts.
To start the final lap, Blunk was in eighth a few seconds behind Rissveds. She said she made a few mistakes on some technical parts on the final lap and finished alone in 10th.
Durango’s Christopher Blevins had a tough weekend. He started the men’s elite XCC race well and was in the top group almost the entire race. He was as high as second before he had a crash on the ninth lap of the 10-lap XCC race. Blevins said another rider accidentally hit his elbow and made him crash immediately. He hit his head hard and thinks he may have had a mild concussion. Therefore, Blevins didn’t race in the men’s elite XCO race on Sunday.
It’s the second consecutive weekend Blevins has been involved in a crash in the XCC race.
“Saying or imagining what could have happened doesn't really mean anything,” Blevins said. “But I definitely know I was on really good days for both those short tracks. I've been in those positions before and if things worked out I could have won both of them. But mainly it's just the feeling of being capable and feeling like I did the best I could to prepare.”
Blevins finished the men’s elite season 10th in the individual standings.
Durango’s Bailey Cioppa had a solid finish to her women’s U-23 season with a 16th-place finish in the women’s U-23 XCC race and a 24th-place finish in the women’s U-23 XCO race.
“The short track went really well,” Cioppa said. “I finally was in the front for a while and I could play the game a bit. I finished and got a second-row start for the Sunday race which was really nice. The Sunday race was pretty slippery and every World Cup race I’ve done this year was muddy. Those definitely aren’t my best conditions so that was tough.”
The Fort Lewis College junior finished the XCC race in 16th in 20:59, 33 seconds behind winner Kira Böhm. Her 24th-place finish in the XCO race came in 1:18:23. Böhm also won that race, in 1:10:11. Cioppa said she didn’t have the confidence on the slippery descents that other riders had in the XCO race.
Cioppa finished the World Cup season 39th in the women’s U-23 individual standings.
Durango’s Lauren Aggeler finished her World Cup season in 29th in the women’s U-23 XCC race and 32nd in the women’s U-23 XCO race. Aggeler finished 34th in the women’s U-23 individual standings.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
