The U23 men rounded out day two of competition in the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series in Mairiporã, Brazil with an unpredictable, combative race, which saw the lead change hands several times in the early stages.
Finn Treudler (Cube Factory Racing) and Luca Martin (Orbea Factory Team) forged clear on the start loop, and it was Martin who took control of the race, moving to the front ahead of a group of 8 chasers, before Treudler launched his own attack before the end of lap one. Martin, Amos and Bjorn Riley (Trek Future Racing) were able to reel in the Swiss to form a lead group of four riders, which then became three when Treudler dropped back.
The Frenchman Martin led the trio with the two Americans on his wheel for a long period, but Treudler fought his way back on to make it a quartet once more partway through lap three. From there, Amos rode clear and powered away, and slowly extended his advantage, as small gaps began to open between the chasing trio. It was Bjorn Riley who broke free of the chase group to launch an attack on the penultimate lap and he began to claw back the deficit to his senior teammate, but Amos held firm, showing strength and tenacity to seal the win and a perfect weekend of racing.
Amos said after the race:
I'm so happy. Those boys made me work for everything, I’m just so over the limit. But I had the gap. So we just have to keep pushing all the way to the line. I had blown up so hard and was so empty. But when you have the lead, you can't do anything but keep fighting for it.
When I got the gap, I was a bit lucky. I just moved around Luca, and they had a little fumble, just like crossed wheels behind me so I just had a tiny gap. And then it kind of stayed between, five and 15 seconds for the whole rest of the race. When you're in that position, it just hurts so bad because you can see him the whole time and you know he wants it just as bad as you and is digging and digging. But it's always a pleasure to battle with Bjorn [Riley], he works so hard. We've all worked so hard. And we're just best mates, so I’m happy for him and happy to go one-two with him for the USA Today.
You can catch the UCI Cross-country Olympic World Cup tomorrow, here's the schedule:
Sunday, April 14
All times are UTC-3 (EST+1/BST-4/CET-5):
- 10:00 – UCI Cross-country Olympic World Cup | Women U23
- 12:15 – UCI Cross-country Olympic World Cup | Women Elite
- 14:30 – UCI Cross-country Olympic World Cup | Men Elite
