Riley Amos (Trek Factory Racing-Pirelli) wrapped up yet another perfect weekend in the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series, sealing victory in the U23 UCI Cross-country Olympic World Cup (XCO) in Araxá on Saturday, following his win in the U23 UCI Cross-country Short Track (XCC) World Cup on Friday. It marked the second double victory for the American following his 100% record in Mairiporã on round one last weekend.
Amos took the race on from the front, but just like last week, found resistance from Finn Treudler (Cube Factory Racing) and Luca Martin (Orbea Factory Team), and the three were joined by Bjorn Riley (Trek Future Racing) to form a quartet of leaders who opened a significant gap to the rest of the field.
Treudler was not content to race as part of a group though and he attacked from the front and rode as solo leader for much of the first lap. But the American duo of Amos and Riley dropped Martin and closed in on Treudler on lap two to form a trio, with a chasing group of four riders around 12 seconds distant heading onto the third circuit.
Amos and Treudler traded blows on lap four, and dropped Riley, who linked up with Brazilian rider Alex Junior Malacarne (Trinity Racing MTB) to form a chasing pair, though the home rider proved stronger as Riley faded towards the end of the race.
At the front it was a straight head-to-head duel between Treudler and Amos. Amos launched into the lead heading onto the penultimate lap and had a nine second cushion going into the final lap. He rode with confidence to take the win, with Treudler securing second and Malacarne delighting the home crowd to finish in third. Bjorn Riley and the Swiss rider Luke Wiedmann (Thömus Maxon) rounded out the podium in fourth and fifth respectively.
After the race Amos said:
It was so hard. It never gets any easier, Finn was riding so strong today. He was climbing so much better than all of us, so it was everything I could do to just dangle on his wheel, and then I honestly felt a little bit better with two laps to go. I saw my opportunity and went for it and I was lucky enough that it worked out. But Finn is amazing, Alex rode an amazing race, so I just got lucky, they were all on it today.
I was struggling to hold the wheel for the first half of the race, and then Finn finally eased up a little bit and I got a little recovery. But I saw where maybe I was a little bit stronger and knew where to be into the downhill to create a little time. I was trying to push into the downhills, blowing out my pedals just barely hanging onto the bike, clipping my derailleur on some rocks, I was on the limit the whole race. I’m just happy it worked out and I made it to the finish line.
Thanks for bringing us to Brazil, I loved it out there!
