The 2020 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships commenced Wednesday in the mountains of Leogang, Austria with the Team Relay and E-MTB races. The U.S. National Team was made up of six strong athletes, four of which raced on the 2019 Team Relay squad. One athlete was chosen from every XCO category, and for the first time since inception in 1999, this also included the junior women. The team comprised of Christopher Blevins (Durango, Colo.; Specialized Factory Racing), Riley Amos (Durango, Colo.; Bear National Team), Haley Batten (Park City, Utah; Clif Pro Team), Madigan Munro (Boulder, Colo.; Trek Factory Racing), Erin Huck (Boulder, Colo.; Stages Cycling-Scott), and Keegan Swenson (Park City, Utah, Stans NoTubes Pivot p/b Maxxis) finished fourth after a muddy and wet 6-lap race.
Blevins, the 2018 U23 Men’s Cross-Country Silver Medalist, was first up for the team relay. He would go to the front of the field and maintain the lead for the entire lap leaving 2019 Junior 17-18 Men’s Cross-Country National Champion, Amos with good positioning. Amos was able to hold onto the lead as Batten took off for the next lap. Batten, who finished sixth in the 2019 U23 Women's Cross-Country World Championships, fought hard to keep the positioning, but handed it off to Munro in third. Munro, bronze medalist at the 2020 Junior Women Cyclocross World Championships, was racing against some of the strongest U23 and Elite racers in the world and would drop to sixth place, then Huck would maintain the position. 2019 Elite Men’s Cross-Country National Champion, Swenson took off on a flying lap where he would bring Team USA up to fourth by the second intermediate split on lap 6. In the end, France took the win, with Italy and Switzerland over a minute behind; the United States finished just off the podium in fourth.
The men’s E-MTB Cross Country event also took place today. Charlie Mullins (Grove City, Penn.) and Nat Ross (Golden, Colo.) would take the starting line for Team USA. Mullins, who finished fourth in the 2019 event, was in the lead group for the first lap of the 5-lap race. As the rhythm increased, Mullins settled into sixth and would maintain that position for the remainder of the race.
Results:
Team Relay
1. France 1:27:34
2. Italy +1:35
3. Switzerland +2:06
4. United States +2:55
Men’s e-MTB Cross-Country
1. Thomas Piddock GBR 1:01:41
2. Jerome Gilloux FRA +0:35
3. Simon Andreassan DEN +0:49
6. Charlie Mullins USA +3:39
33. Nat Ross USA @2 Laps
Racing continues tomorrow with the Junior Women and Men’s Cross-Country races.
Women’s Juniors Cross-Country
Start Time:
1:30pm Local Time / 4:30am PT / 7:30am ET
Who To Watch:
Ruth Holcomb (Durango, Colo.; Bear National Team)
Madigan Munro (Boulder, Colo.; Trek Factory Racing)
Haley Randel (Mill Valley, Calif.; Bear National Team)
Men's Juniors Cross-Country
Start Time:
3:30pm Local Time / 5:25am PT / 8:25am ET
Who To Watch:
Riley Amos (Durango, Colo.; Bear National Team)
Bjorn Riley (Boulder, Colo.; Bear National Team)
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