In the toughest conditions of the World Cup season, Riley Amos and Bjorn Riley soared
Riley Amos called Saturday’s World Cup race in Crans-Montana “the most difficult race in my U23 career” … and he won.
Muddy conditions made an already brutally difficult debut course in Switzerland nearly impossible to navigate cleanly. Bikes and riders were sliding all over the place. They had to dismount for many of the most difficult climbs. Equipment was pushed to its limits.
But in the end, Amos stood atop his ninth World Cup podium this season, and fifth straight XCO. And right beside was Trek Future Racing’s Bjorn Riley, who made an incredible comeback in the final two laps to complete the fifth Trek 1-2 between the two riders this season.
“Oh my God, it was a roller coaster of emotions — of technical abilities, and of technical problems,” Riley said after the race.
Riley Amos is *still* undefeated in World Cup XCOs this season.
Amos and Riley started fast, knowing that being up front on a muddy course, ahead of the compounding chaos, would give them the best chance to win. A clear hierarchy was established with Amos in first, Riley in second, and France’s Luca Martin in third, all separated by several meters through three-plus laps.
But on Lap 4, while seemingly riding comfortably, Riley slipped and crashed before a significant climb. He was physically unscathed — he compared falling into the soft mud to “a nice warm hug from the earth” — but the fall knocked his handlebars out of alignment, and he fell back to third place after losing 30-plus seconds trying to fix them himself, and then stopping in the tech zone for team assistance.
A common scene this season.
Riley made up the roughly 15-second gap to Martin, but then dropped his chain on the final lap. After a quick fix, he found himself facing a similar deficit with approximately 10 minutes of racing left to claw his way back.
“I was like, I’ve not been second place the whole race, I don’t want to crash then be out of the podium, so I just knew where I could go a lot deeper, and that was on the sections that weren’t as muddy,” Riley said. “So I just bided my time. And every time that happened, I’d just try to go a little above VO2, and then settle back into thresholds when I could.”
To put it more succinctly: “I was just really pissed.”
Bjorn Riley is on fire, placing Top 2 in his last four World Cup starts.
Riley passed Martin with some fanciful bike handling exiting the track’s vicious rock garden. He’d take second by 15 seconds over Martin.
Amos, miraculously, stayed upright throughout the race, despite conditions that felled nearly everyone else. He credited Trek’s support staff and equipment for getting him through the hardest race of the year. Tire choice proved to be pivotal.
“The mud was thickening up, it was really sticking to the tires,” Amos said. “It was really hard to get traction lap after lap because it was just gunking up. I had for sure the best tire out there, I could hold all the off-cambers, but on the climbs it was still tacky and the wheels were just spinning.
“I’m just thankful for the team that supports me on days like today. I’m thankful for Trek when it gets super gnarly.”
Riley navigating the toughest race of the year.
Amos called Crans-Montana a “race of least mistakes.” In some of the toughest conditions they’ll ever face, the two Trek riders were far and away the strongest on course, a testament to their skill, stamina, and presence of mind. And now that they’ve passed the season’s toughest test, they’ll be happy if they can get back to racing on some nice, fast dirt.
“It was a fun race, but I don’t know if I like or hate these conditions,” Riley said. “I do good in them. But I just want the sun, man. I love summer.”
Gwendalyn Gibson is back in the Top 5.
Gwendalyn Gibson and Evie Richards are finding the groove
Last weekend’s race in Val di Sole was the first World Cup back for Gwendalyn Gibson and Evie Richards coming off injuries. In a brutal 20 minutes of racing, Gibson finished fifth and Richards finished 13th during Saturday’s short track race in Crans-Montana, showing that they’re approaching full strength as they head into the second half of the World Cup circuit.
The result was a particularly encouraging result for Gibson, who has developed a knack for short track racing. She took fourth in short track at World Championships in 2023, and won in Snowshoe in 2022. On Saturday, she flashed her resiliency multiple times, bridging back to the lead group of four riders at the starts of Laps 4 and 5, before losing contact during the final attacks of the race.
Evie Richards is looking like her old self after missing Nové Město.
“I’ve just been trying to find my confidence on a mountain bike again. It comes in waves. I think in the short track today I definitely found it,” Gibson said. “I felt like I was riding the descents smoothly. And I just felt really strong on the climbs.
“I just gave everything to stay on.”
Sunday will be a major test of fitness for both Richards and Gibson, especially if rain makes a mess of the course as it did in the men’s U23 XCO. But for now, they can rest up know that they are rounding into form.
“It just feels good to race at the front of the race and be in it,” Gibson said. “It’s a good feeling. It feels like I’m really back now.”
