The first Mercedes-Benz UCI mountain bike World Cup Cross Country Olympic races of the season were held on Saturday and Sunday in Petropolis, Brazil.
In the U23 men’s race Saturday, Durangoan Riley Amos (Trek Factory Racing) finished fourth in 1 hour, 4 minutes and 40 seconds, finishing just one second off the podium. Martin Vidaurre-Kossmann of Chile won the race in 1:03:32, followed by Janis Baumann of Switzerland (1:04:08) and Oleksandr Hudyma of Ukraine (1:04:39) in third. Italy’s Andreas Emanuele Vittone finished in the same time as Amos, but Amos beat him to the line.
Amos was one of three cyclists from the USA who competed in the U23 race. Robbie Day finished 25th in 1:09:17, and Brayden Johnson placed 27th in 1:09:40.
Christopher Blevins, meanwhile, was the USA’s lone representative in the men’s elite cross-country race Sunday. Two days after finishing seventh in the World Cup short track race, Blevins (Specialized Factory Racing) cracked the top 20 in the cross-country race, placing 19th in 1:30:42. Nino Schurter (Scott SRAM) of Switzerland, meanwhile, scored his 33rd World Cup win, matching Julien Absalon for the most all time.
The World Cup, which includes nine stops this year, will resume May 6-8 in Albstadt, Germany.
