Four Vermonters Head to UCI Worlds
Of the 47 mountain bikers selected to race at the UCI World Mountain Bike Championships in Trentino, Italy next week, Aut. 25-29, four are Vermonters. Two are new names to watch.
Two-time cross-country Olympian Lea Davison may have fallen shy of making the Tokyo 2020 Olympics but she has her sights set on 2024. To train she put in what she said was one of her “most challenging training blocks ever” racing back to back in Ted and Laura King’s Vermont gravel fest, Rooted, and then the Slate Valley Epic, nearer to her home in Arlington. “I emerged out the other side a different racer because hard work pays off. I finally feel like myself and that has me SO excited to go over to Europe and get back in the mix,” she posted on her Instagram.
Pittsfield’s Mazie Hayden dislocated her shoulder earlier in the season racing downhill at the World Cup at Innsbruck. Still, after recovering she placed sixth at Nationals and spent the summer on top of the podium at many of the East’s top races, including the Eastern States Cup at Sugarbush and the Red Bull Raw Slalom at Killington. Hayden last raced the World Cup course Black Snake as a junior and she’s excited to go back. She finished 12th in the 2020 World Championships in Leogang, Austria.
To anyone who has been watching Austin and Carson Beard, 17, progress over the last five years, the fact that they were named to the Junior Team is no surprise. The Middlesex twins, now 17, were featured in a cover story in Vermont Sports “The Dirt Pack” in 2016. Since then, they’ve been traveling around the country each summer competing, with their parents, Phil and Kelly, often racing the events as well as part of a team sponsored by Bicycle Express. Austin is currently ranked 5th in the US in the 17-18 age group and 27th globally. In 2020 as a junior in high school, he was on both varsity squads that won the cross country running and nordic skiing state championships. Carson finished in 2nd, 3rd, and twice in 5th place in 4 out of 5 XC events, and placed 4th at the USA Cycling National Championships in the cross country event in Winter Park, Colorado. He is currently ranked 6th in the US in the 17-18 age group and 28th globally. In 2020 as a junior in high school, he was on both varsity squads that won the cross country running and nordic skiing state championships.
“We ride separately a lot but it’s so cool to have someone to train with and push you and motivate you,” Carson said of his brother, Austin. The pair have been coached by Skirack’s Jake Hollenbach and are regulars at the Catamount Outdoor Center weekly races. It’s their first time racing in Europe.
Davison and the Beard twins will be racing cross country, the elite course is a 4K circuit with 190 meters of elevation gain. Hayden will ride the 2.4 k downhill course, Black Snake, a challenging and very technical course with an average 22 percent grade that hits 40 percent at times in several sections and drops 540 meters.
To watch you can livestream the races at FloBikes. The schedule is:
Wednesday, August 25: XCO Team Relay
Thursday, August 26: XCO Juniors and Short Track
Friday, August 27: E-MTB and Four Cross
Saturday, August 28: XCO U23 and Elite
Sunday, August 29: Downhill Finals
Cross-Country
Elite Women
Haley Batten (Park City, Utah; Trinity Racing)
Kate Courtney (Kentfield, Calif.; SCOTT-SRAM Factory Racing)
Lea Davison (Jericho, Vt.; Team TWENTY24)
Erin Huck (Estes Park, Colo.; SCOTT-Stages)
Hannah Finchamp (Salt Lake City; Orange Seal Off-Road Team)
Kelsey Urban (Kentfield, Calif.; Team 31: Outride)
Elite Men
Christopher Blevins (Durango, Colo.; Trinity Racing)
Stephan Davoust (Durango, Colo.; Giant Factory Off-Road Team)
Keegan Swenson (Park City Utah; Santa Cruz Bicycles)
Luke Vrouwenvelder (Chapel Hill, N.C; Giant Factory Off-Road Team)
U23 Women
Savilia Blunk (Inverness, Calif.; Orange Seal Racing)
Gwendalyn Gibson (Ramona, Calif.; Norco Bicycles)
Madigan Munro (Boulder, Colo.; Trek Factory Racing)
U23 Men
Riley Amos (Durango, Colo.; Bear National Team)
Bjorn Riley (Boulder, Colo.; Bear National Team)
Robbie Day (Evergreen, Colo.; Bear National Team)
Junior Women
Lauren Aggeler (Durango, Colo.; Bear National Team)
Mia Aseltine (Littleton, Colo.; WE Development)
Bailey Cioppa (Durango, Colo.; Bear Development Team)
Sofia Forney (Lakewood, Colo.; WE Development)
Ruth Holcomb (Durango, Colo.; Bear National Team)
Makena Kellerman (Escondido, Colo.; Bear National Team)
Tai-Lee Smith (Breckenridge, Colo.; Bear National Team)
Junior Men
Austin Beard (Middlesex, Vt.; Bicycle Express Racing)
Carson Beard (Middlesex, Vt.; Bicycle Express Racing)
Carson Hampton (Boise, Idaho; Bear Development Team)
Bradyn Johnson (Jordan, Utah; Bear National Team)
Cayden Parker (Hot Springs, Ark.; Bear National Team)
Ivan Sippy (Duango, Colo.; Durango Segment 28)
Downhill
Elite Women
Mazie Hayden (Pittsfield, Vt.; Defiant Racing)
Abigail Hogie (Heidelberg, Germany; Tillit Gravity Team)
Anna Newkirk (Riehen, Switzerland; Canyon)
Kailey Skelton (Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif.; KHS Factory Racing)
Elite Men
Aaron Gwin (Murrieta, Calif.; Intense Factory Racing)
Charlie Harrison (Trabuco Canyon, Calif.; Trek Factory Racing)
Neko Mulally (Pisgah Forest, N.C.; Intense Factory Racing)
Nikolas Nesteroff (San Diego, Calif.; KHS Factory Racing)
Dakotah Norton (Oliver Springs, Tenn.; The YT Mob)
Luca Shaw (Hendersonville, N.C.; Santa Cruz Syndicate)
Dante Silva (Chula Vista, Calif.; Canyon)
Junior Women
Emma Artz (Kirkland, Wash.)
Ella Erickson (Hayden, Idaho; Commencal USA)
Junior Men
Andrew Driscoll (Bow, N.H.; Defiant Racing)
Christopher Grice (Brevard, N.C.; Specialized Factory Racing)
Dean Lindsey (Pleasanton, Calif.)
Dylan Maples (Orangevale, Calif.; Commencal)
Selection criteria are available for Cross-Country here and Downhill here.
e-MTB
Elite Women
Ashley Hendershot (Mansfield, Ohio)
Callie Horwath (Brevard, N.C.)
Elite Men
Dave Harrison (Sun Valley, Idaho)
Charlie Mullins (Grove City, Pa.)
Nat Ross (Golden, Colo.; Tough Guy Productions)
Kyle Smith (Cornelius, N.C.)
Gerald White (Tampa, Fla.)
