A day after his toughest win of the season, Riley Amos (Trek Factory Racing-Pirelli) romped to his most dominant victory in the U23 UCI Cross-Country Olympic (XCO) World Cup at Crans-Montana, Valais.

Amos was pushed all the way in yesterday’s U23 UCI Cross-Crountry Short Track (XCC) World Cup race and crossed the line just two seconds ahead of Bjorn Riley (Trek Factory Racing) but it was a different story in XCO as he enjoyed a comprehensive 37-second margin of victory.

Amos took the bull by the horns on the starting loop and only Bjorn and Rens Teunissen van Manen could live with the pace, the Dutchman leading the field onto the first lap for KMC Ridley MTB Racing.

Riley and Teunissen van Manen were able to just about stay in touch with Amos in the opening two circuits, but the overall leader kicked fully clear on lap three, putting 16 seconds into his compatriot whose race soon got more exciting.

Teunissen van Manen’s afternoon came unstuck when he dropped a minute to the leaders on the second lap and would go on to finish ninth, promoting Luca Martin (Orbea Factory Racing team) onto the podium after he’d previously been the clear best of the rest behind the top trio.

As Amos continued to set the pace up front, Riley suffered a crash in the muddy conditions, then chain and handlebar problems and hemorrhaged almost a minute to Martin, dropping behind the Frenchman having looked set for second from the moment Teunissen van Manen fell away.

But Riley responded magnificently, using the A-Line in the drier sections to hunt Martin down and eventually retake second place. But it was still a strong result for Martin in his battle with Finn Treudler (Cube Factory Racing) for third place in the overall standings with his rival finishing seventh, and Cole Punchard recorded his best result of the season in fourth for Pivot Cycles-OTE.

I think that was the hardest, most difficult race of my entire U23 career today,” Amos said afterwards. “Everyone knew it was going to be an absolute war, I went all out from the gun to try and get out front early, make the race my own and make as little mistakes as possible and just try and stay off your ass, it was one hell of a day out there. 

“I tried to stay calm, get off the bike early and run rather than falling over halfway up the hill, and just riding your own race, slow and steady today was the race for sure.

While losing ground to Amos, Riley further solidified his own position in the top three of the standings but was made to work for it due to those problems on the fourth lap.

I literally just couldn’t find my line, it was a comforting crash in a sense, it didn’t hurt but it was a wild ride,” Riley explained. “I was pretty p****d after that, my bars were turned, then my chain falling off and maybe that p****d off energy gave me a little more gas.

“I was like ‘I’ve been second the whole race, I don’t want to crash and be off the podium’, I knew I could go a lot quicker so I just bided my time and tried to go a little above VO2 then settle back into threshold when I could.

“It was a fun race, I don’t know if I hated these conditions, I do good in them, but I just want the sun!

The women’s U23 XCO World Cup race kickstarts Sunday’s action in Crans-Montana, as the weekend climaxes with the men’s and women’s elite XCO events on the penultimate round before riders turn their attention to the Paris Olympics.