The WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series weekend in Nové Mĕsto Na Moravĕ began under stormy skies with an imperious win for Canada’s Isabella Holmgren in the women’s U23 Cross-country Short Track (XCC). On the men’s side, Series leader Riley Amos (Trek Factory Racing - Pirelli) took a much tighter one, his third in a row, and fifth across both disciplines.
The opening race of the weekend saw Canada’s Isabella Holmgren battle treacherous conditions on the Nové Mĕsto Na Moravĕ course. She kept her cool and stayed upright, riding clear of the field with two laps to go to take an impressive victory in her first race of the series.
After making her escape, the 19-year-old rode steady to take victory by nine seconds from Ella Maclean-Howell, a career-best result for the British rider. In second place overall after two rounds Madigan Munro (Trek Factory Racing - Pirelli) finished a close third on the day, to close the gap at the top of the overall standings.
Women’s series leader Kira Böhm (Cube Factory Racing), who won both of the opening rounds, experienced a much more difficult time on the bike. The German rider suffered a fall early on, causing her to drop far down the field. She was then forced to expend precious energy clawing her way back to the front.
“I had a good start and felt good,” Böhm said afterwards, “but then I had a bad crash and lost a lot of time. I tried to get back to the front group and went all out to get there. When I was there, I was totally empty for the last laps.”
Despite coming in a lowly 17th, Böhm maintains her position at the top of the overall standings, with a healthy 49-point lead over USA’s Monroe.
In contrast to Holmgren’s dominant ride, the men’s race was a much closer affair. Five riders were in contention up until the last lap. In the end Amos outsprinted Switzerland’s Dario Lillo (Giant Factory Off-Road Team - XC) to make it three from three in XCC, with Amos taking two more in the Under-23 UCI Cross-country Olympic World Cup (XCO).
Amos did not seem to experience any major difficulties, but admitted to finding the course a challenge:
“All the rain during the day definitely made all the grass sections super muddy [and] super slow,” he said afterwards. “If you were in the group, you were just getting sprayed in the mouth and eyes with mud. Staying out of danger was the goal today because it was really slippery.”
He was, however, “blown away to take the win. I felt amazing out there today. Definitely surprised with how good I felt. I just got over from the US on Monday, so I barely kicked the jet lag on time. To go five in a row and be holding on to both overalls is unreal.”
You can follow the action from the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series round in Nové Mĕsto Na Moravĕ, Czech Republic wherever you are in the world.
For Saturday and Sunday’s UCI Cross-country Marathon World Cup, there will be live timings on the official WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series website and highlights on the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series’ Instagram and Facebook channels, with top stories from the race weekend to be published on the YouTube channel on Thursday, May 30.
Both the men’s and women's UCI Cross-country Olympic World Cup U23 races will be broadcast live on the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series YouTube channel, but for all other races, tune in to one of the channels or streaming services available in your country.
