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Late crash costs Blevins on short track

Blunk places 10th in elite women’s race
Blevins

Christopher Blevins lined up for Team USA in Les Gets France on Friday to defend the world title he won last year in the event.

Starting with a front row call-up, Blevins never left the lead group. He followed every move and had incredible positioning all race, according to Team USA.

Rain changed the course, making many of the spots in the rock gardens slick throughout the race. The leaders went down several times, but Blevins avoided the chaos and stayed on his bike.

It came down to the last lap, where Samuel Gaze of New Zealand and Blevins picked up the pace to fight for the win. As they entered the last rock garden going into the finish straight, Blevins took the outside line in an attempt to hit the rock garden before Gaze. The two went side by side through it, with Blevins off the main line, hitting another rock past the obstacle that knocked him to the ground. When he got back up, his bike was barely ridable, but he rode to 16th place out of the 47 riders who started the race.

Blevins ended up finishing 30 seconds behind the new world champion, Gaze, who won in 22 minutes, 21 seconds. Switzerland riders Filippo Colombo (+0:03) and Thomas Litscher (+0:07) rounded out the podium.

Savilia Blunk

Savilia Blunk, competing on the short track in the elite women’s division, had one of her best results in the discipline, placing 10th (+0:54).

Pauline Ferrand Prevot of France attacked on the seventh lap and won the world title in 21:56, beating runner-up, Alessandra Keller of Switzerland, who crashed early on, by 18 seconds. Gwendalyn Gibson of Team USA grabbed the final podium spot (+0:21) to win her first world championship medal while Kate Courtney also finished the top 10 for USA, placing eighth (+0:50).

“I think you just had to stay smooth,” Gibson said. “The lines were the same but you had to stay a bit more cautious. The rocks were wet and that changed up the dynamic a bit. I think some riders took a spill on the wet rocks so I was like ‘just keep it up right, push it on the climbs, and I’ll be good.’”

Sofia Gomez Villafane, representing Argentina, finished 24th in short track, getting dropped one lap before finishing. Earlier in the day, however, Villafane finished fifth in the E-mountain bike world championships.

“E-bike World Champs was sick,” Villafane posted. “P5 for me in the end with an effort that I am proud of. Full gas for 50 minutes and loved every second of it. Big thanks to (Specialized) for all their help getting the Levo dialed. Now onto short track in a few hours.”

Nicole Goldi of Switzerland finished first in the e-bike race 47:00, and Villafane finished 1:54 later.

Jerome Gilloux of France won the men’s e-bike world title in 52:21.

Blevins, Blunk and Riley Amos will race again Sunday in the cross-country Olympic championships.