Les Gets XCC Short Track Results
Riley and Holmgren Take U23 Wins. Elite Results Below
Riley Amos (Trek Factory Racing-Pirelli) left Les Gets with a stomach bug and is home in Durango, Colorado, starting his last training block before the Olympics1. That means all eyes are on Bjorn Riley (Trek Future Racing), the presumptive favorite in this weekend’s men’s U23 racing.
Bjorn Riley already won a round of the World Cup short track in Val di Sole and was second to Riley Amos in the last round at Crans Montana. With Amos gone, the pressure is on for Bjorn to answer the bell in today’s unbroadcast U23 XCC race.
And he did. Hanging out in the lead pack but not at the front all race, Riley waited until the last lap to make his move and take the win by three seconds to capture his second U23 XCC World Cup victory. He now rests up until Sunday to see if he can add his first XCO World Cup to the win column.
In the women’s U23 XCC race, Isabella Holmbren (Lidl Trek) had unfinished business in the short track. She raced in two other World Cup events this year; her worst result was second. She won the XCC and XCO in Nove Mesto and the XCO in Val Di Sole. But Kira Böhm (Cube Factory Racing) pipped Holmgren in the VdS short track, blemishing her perfect record.
Holmgren re-established her dominance in the short race (as our European friends like to call it) with a throw-the-strategy-out-the-window and lead-from-the-front-of-the-race plan. She took the lead in lap three and stayed on the front for the next four laps, taking the win by three seconds. Böhm could not best Holmgren two times in a row and finished second.
The elite race spoiler-free zone has now ended. Results for all four XCC races, elite and U23, are below. The schedule and other information for Sunday is here. Happy analyzing.
Women’s U23 XCC
Men’s U23 XCC
Women’s Elite XCC
Men’s Elite XCC
Did you know that Riley Amos is the number one ranked rider in the world? Not amongst U23 riders but the whole men’s field. Victor Koretzky and Nino Schurter in second and third are looking up at Amos. That’s wild. It probably deserves more than a footnote.