Three of the 10 mountain bikers selected by USA Cycling for the 2019 Pan American Continental cross-country mountain bike championships hail from Durango.
Riley Amos, Christopher Blevins and Howard Grotts were all named to the team Monday. The races will be held April 3-7 in Aguascalientes, Mexico. USA Cycling mountain bike director Marc Gullickson said in a news release it will be a great opportunity for elite riders to collect International Cycling Union (UCI) points and believes the team has strong medal contenders.
Every race with UCI points up for grabs will be huge for the American men leading into the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, as the U.S. hopes to earn enough points to send two men to the Olympics instead of one, and Blevins and Grotts want those two spots if possible.
“It’s easy to think every race matters and get sucked into that mindset of trying to maximize points,” Blevins said in a phone interview with The Durango Herald. “It’s definitely a big goal for us this year to try to get those two spots for the Olympics, but, at the end of the day, I’m trying to focus myself on the process and each race individually and not thinking about where the points fall because the chips will fall where they fall. For these early races, I think we have a really good opportunity to get some points. I’m, hopefully, riding pretty well and can maximize the opportunity.”
Grotts represented the U.S. at the 2016 Olympics in the midst of a streak of four consecutive cross-country mountain bike elite national championships. He will compete for the elite men along with Russell Finsterwald of Colorado Springs, Keegan Swenson of Park City, Utah, and Luke Vrouwenvelder of North Carolina.
The elite women are headlined by reigning world champion Kate Courtney of California. She will be joined by Boulder’s Erin Huck and Arizona’s Chloe Woodruff.
“The women are as stacked as they could be,” Blevins said. “Hopefully, the men can follow in their steps.”
Blevins is fresh off a silver-medal finish at the under-23 mountain bike world championships last season. He is joined in the under-23 ranks by Park City’s Haley Batten on the women’s team.
After claiming the silver medal last year, Blevins has set his goals on climbing one step higher this season. During the offseason, he decided to focus solely on mountain biking for the next two years and stepped away from road cycling where he also had huge success as a junior.
“I’m excited for some consistency doing all the World Cup races in Europe and having a full schedule ahead of me,” he said. “My goal is definitely to go one step higher. It’s the same for every race against U23s, but things can happen and circumstances change. I’m focused on being the best I can be every day.”
Amos, who won a pair of junior men 15-16 national championships in cross-country and short-track last year, also was selected as the lone junior. USA Cycling did not have an automatic qualifier for the junior women and had no junior women petition to compete.
Blevins said he is excited for Amos to race in a USA jersey and predicted he will accomplish big things in 2019.
“I’m super excited to be selected,” Amos said. “It came as a surprise to me that USA Cycling chose me as the only male junior to represent, as I am fresh into the 17-18 junior category with not a single race under my belt.
“The race is going to be at almost the exact elevation as Durango, so I definitely have some home-field advantage, and I will be racing both the team relay event to earn Olympic points for next year’s Olympics and two individual races in the week that I’m there. It’s going to be a really amazing opportunity.”
jlivingston@durangoherald.com
