Savilia Blunk scored a top-10 finish on Saturday at the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships in Scotland.
Blunk, a former Fort Lewis College Skyhawk and current elite national champion in two mountain bike disciplines, competed in the cross-country Olympic World Championship with Team USA’s Kate Courtney and Gwendalyn Gibson.
The trio contested seven laps of the 3.5-kilometer course and were all in the top 15 in the first half lap. As the race progressed, Blunk and Gibson kept to the front of the race, staying in the top-10.
Blunk eventually finished 10th, two spots behind Gibson. Courtney crossed 29th in the 62-rider field.
Blunk, the XCO national champ, finished between two riders from the Mountain Bike powerhouse Switzerland.
“I had a slower start but rode into the race,” Blunk said. “Super happy to finish in the top 10. I was in a Swiss sandwich the whole time, so it was a bit nerve-wracking. I just had to ride my own race. I’m super happy to be coming back in the second half of the season.”
Pauline Ferrand Prevot of France won gold, followed by Loana LeComte of France and Puck Pieterse of the Netherlands.
Durangoan Chistopher Blevins was the only American racing in the eight-lap elite men’s cross-country Olympic race at Glentress Forest.
On the Monday before racing, while pre-riding the course, Blevins crashed, breaking his pinkie finger and needing stitches on his chin. He cleared concussion protocol by the USA Cycling medical team in time to start on Saturday. Blevins had a tough call up to the line, starting 54th out of 98 riders. He kept charging the whole race and went from 57th at the start of lap two to finish in 37th. With the course as tight and punchy as it was, it was rare for riders to move up as dramatically as that through the week.
“Health always comes first,” Blevins said. “I took a little knock to the head, and I had to be honest with myself and talk to the doctors. Thankfully, I progressed through the concussion protocol, and I was good to go on race day. I felt normal. It’s always a balance of pushing through good pain and listening to bad pain that you want to respect.”
Thomas Pidcock, a WorldTour road racer, won Great Britain’s first XCO world title in 1 hour, 22 minutes and 9 seconds. Short-track champ Samuel Gaze (New Zealand) finished 19 seconds later while Nino Schurter of Switzerland won the bronze.
