Team USA wins mixed relay at MTB Worlds
Christopher Blevins anchored the team's winning ride
Team USA won the mixed relay event this evening at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Andorra, earning the country’s first-ever gold medal in the event.
The mixed relay is an event unique to the World Championships where countries compete in a six lap race with both women and men from across categories. The USA’s squad was made up of Brayden Johnson (U23), Nicholas Konecny (Junior), Haley Batten (Elite), Vida Lopez De San Roman (Junior), Madigan Munro (U23), and Christopher Blevins (Elite).
France’s Luca Martin was fast out of the gate, leading the first lap followed by Denmark and Italy. The Italian Matteo Siffredi then took over the lead during lap two, trailed by France and the United States.
France then went to work and led the next three laps with Loana Lecomte—who crashed hard and DNF’d the Olympics a month ago—Olivia Onesti, and Anais Moulin.
The United States was riding in third and Madigan Munro took the team up to second during the penultimate lap. Then Christopher Blevins took flight and set the fastest lap time on the day (11:20) to secure the win 3” ahead of France’s Mathis Azzaro.
Italy, Canada, and Switzerland rounded out the top-5. Full results here.
Worlds continues tomorrow with the Junior downhill finals race.
