Two flat tires put a quick end to Christopher Blevins’ pursuit of a top-10 finish at the world championships.
The 19-year-old from Durango was in 11th place after one of six laps at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championship Men’s Under-23 Cross-Country race Friday in Cairns, Australia. He turned in the eighth-fastest first-lap in 12 minutes, 46 seconds. That moved him to 11th after riding the start loop in 16th place.
But a flat tire on the second lap cost Blevins nearly a full minute, and that dropped him to 21st place. Another flat tire on the third lap was the final blow for Blevins, as he turned in a lap of 14:54, the third slowest lap of any finisher in the entire race. That dropped Blevins to 47th place, but he wouldn’t ride to the finish discouraged.
The son of Field and Priscilla Blevins got back on his saddle and completed the fourth lap in 13:10 and the fifth in 13:13 before hammering home a 12:52 final lap – the ninth-fastest final lap in the field – to finished 32nd overall. His total time was 1 hour, 23 minutes, 17 seconds. He finished 5:31 behind New Zealand’s Samuel Gaze, who claimed his second consecutive U23 world title with a time of 1:17:46. Gaze edged South Africa’s Alan Hatherly by 11 seconds, and Germany’s Maximilian Brandl was third, 51 seconds behind Gaze.
Blevins was the top-American finisher despite his mechanical struggles. Luke Vrouwenvelder of North Carolina finished 39th in 1:24:14. Cole Paton, a Fort Lewis College rider from Washington, placed 45th in 1:25:19. Sandy Floren of California finished 52nd in 1:27:11.
Next up in Australia is the women’s U23 race Saturday. That will be followed by the women’s and men’s elite cross-country races.
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
