Right now in Utah, Soldier Hollow to be precise, riders from all over the Americas are going head to head for a Championship medal. This race gets little fanfare, and to be fair, I’m not sure why we have such a championship race. We have country champions, do we need another for a group of certain countries?
From the looks of the earlier events from Wednesday through yesterday, by far the majority of riders are from the U.S. With just a handful from other countries. Nothing wrong with that, the race is here in our own country. But you never see or hear anyone at the World Cup level proudly displaying their PanAm jersey? At least I don’t recall. I remember Emily Batty winning a few times, and that’s about it.
My goal was actually to drive to Utah this year and watch it, but it didn’t pan out. On the one hand, there are many amateur racers who get a chance to race some new people from other countries. And those amateur events are already over with racers from Colombia, Mexico, Ecuador and of course the USA. In fact just today, 3rd place in the XCC went to Miguel Paredes from Columbia, so there are clearly fast racers all over the region.
Check it out here: https://utahmtbpanam.com
