Carter Woods has won a second World Cup mountain bike race in as many weeks in Europe.
After a gold medal finish the previous weekend in Germany at the opening round of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup, the 19-year-old from Cumberland again was again the strongest rider in the men’s U23 field, winning gold Saturday, May 15 at a race in the Czech Republic.
In Germany, he took a conservative approach because he didn’t know much about his competitors. But coming last weekend’s race, he had it in mind to go on the second or third lap. The course was muddy, which played to his advantage.
Taking the lead after the first lap of the wet and technical course, Woods was able to hold off American rider Riley Amos. He crossed the finish line with a two-minute lead over his closest opponent.
“The last couple of weeks have been unbelievable,” Woods said by email. “I trained almost all winter and spring on my XC bike in similar conditions on the Island. Cumberland in the rain definitely had me prepared.”
He said there are a couple of elite men with higher ranking qualifications from 2019 for the Olympics, where Canada is only allotted one spot for men in the MTB event.
Woods is on his way to Andorra, where the Canadian team will train for a few weeks to prepare for the next block of races.
Woods races World Cup events as a member of the Norco Factory team. He also competes at world championships as a member of Canada’s national team.
“The support from my Norco team has been amazing and made this all possible,” he said.
READ: Cumberland mountain bike racer cracks top 10 in Italy
reporter@comoxvalleyrecord.com
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