An early crash by leader Kira Böhm (Cube Factory Racing) in the women’s U23 UCI Cross-Crountry Short Track (XCC) World Cup allowed second place Emilly Johnston (Trek Future Racing) take advantage and seize a first victory of the year. 

Johnston attacked Carla Hahn (Lexware Mountainbike Team) late in the race, soloing to the win by five seconds. In the men’s U23 XCC, the almost flawless season of Riley Amos (Trek Factory Racing-Pirelli) continued with his eighth win out of a possible nine. The XCC winner in Val Di Sole, Trentino, Bjorn Riley (Trek Future Racing) finished a close second.

JOHNSTON ON CLOUD NINE

Emilly Johnston (Trek Future Racing) was overjoyed to take her first victory of the season in Crans-Montana, Switzerland. 

“I can’t believe it,” she said afterwards. “I think I’m a bit in awe still.”

Johnston escaped early with Carla Hahn (Lexware Mountainbike Team) and Madigan Munro (Trek Factory Racing-Pirelli.) Early efforts to dispense with the German were unsuccessful and by the penultimate lap she still had Hahn hot on her heels. The situation forced her hand.

“I knew that in the sprint she would get me nine times out of ten,” Johnston explained, “so I had to be away before then. I just gave it the beans up the climb.” 

Despite her high overall position and strong results until today the win had proved elusive. “This year I’ve struggled with knowing if I can do it and believing,” Johnston said.

Tactically “I went out there racing to win,” she said, “and I just sent it as hard as I could on every downhill. That definitely helped me out there today.” 

She had into this weekend determined to reboot, summing up her approach as “don’t be scared” and “just send it, and it worked. I’m so stoked.”

For overall leader Böhm “It was not my best day.” 

“I had a crash on the first lap on the last downhill and it cost me a lot of time,” she said. “but after the crash I didn’t feel good [anyway].” 

EIGHT OUT OF NINE FOR AMOS

Riley Amos’ eighth victory of the season in men’s U23 XCC in Crans-Montana was “the hardest one of the year for me, for sure.”

The field stayed largely as one for most of the race’s duration, before breaking into smaller groups in the latter stages. Following a number of failed moves, Amos committed to an attack on the course’s climb on the very final lap.

“It kept coming back together on the finish,” he explained afterwards, “but then with two laps to go I put in a hard dig, because I didn't like how many of us were together. That split us into three or four.”

The group hesitated on the last lap which was when Amos “just went for it completely. I told myself I couldn’t drop a gear and just held the gear to the top and it was enough.” 

Weather conditions ahead of the event had created questions in his mind about how the course would ride. That rendered pre-race decision-making and early tactics even more important.

“I was honestly scared before the race because it was so different [to practise.]” he said. “I wasn’t sure how slick it was going to be, or if the lines we practised were going to be good. I went with a safe tyre choice that had a tonne of grip. It was slow on the climb but when we got onto the descent I had a tonne of traction.” 

For the opening laps Riley “just tried to follow wheels for the first couple of laps. You don’t want to be too far back in case someone crashes and you miss the split, but I honestly didn’t want to be the trailblazer on those descents.”

Amos’ compatriot Bjorn Riley (Trek Future Racing) finished 2nd, with Luca Martin (Orbea Factory Team) in third.

Saturday sees the Men’s and Women’s UCI Elite Cross-country Short Track World Cup races from Crans-Montana, Valais, as well as the men’s U23 Cross-country Olympic (XCO) World Cup.