Cole Punchard slides to fourth in muddy Crans-Montana World Cup
Career-best result for Canadian under-23 national champion
Photo by:
WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series
Saturday was a busy, and muddy day at the Crans-Montana World Cup. While the rain mostly held off for the elite short track races, the skies let loose on the under-23 men’s XCO race. That worked in favour of Canadian under-23 national champion Cole Punchard, who earned a career-best World Cup result in fourth.
Amos on the attack
The U.S. duo of Riley Amos (Trek Factory Racing) and Bjorn Riley (Trek Future Racing) are proving to be the story of this year’s under-23 men’s field. The pair have rarely finished outside of the top two steps of the podium, in XCC or the longer XCO races.
After repeating that performance on Friday, their dominance looked to be in doubt on Saturday. A crash late in the race left Riley with twisted bars and forced a stop into the tech zone to get his bike set straight. While Amos continued on off the front, Riley’s minor mechanical let Luca Martin (Orbea Factory Team) and Cole Punchard (Pivot Cycles-OTE) back into the race.
Riley fought back, though, passing Punchard then Martin to get back into second place.
Riley Amos takes yet another win, moving further into the overall lead. Bjorn Riley salvages a stellar second place out of the mud. Martin would hold on for third.
Cole Punchard earns fourth, a career-best and a huge result of the under-23 Canadian national champion from the small Canadian squad up against very well supported factory team racers.
Ian Ackert (Trek Future Racing) finishes 26th, Owen Clark (Armada) 38th, Mika Comaniuk (Pittstop Racing) 72nd, Noah Ramsay 92nd, and Alexander Woodford 114th of 128 starters. Zorak Paillé (Pittstop Racing) registers a DNF.
