{"id":794050,"date":"2026-07-11T01:58:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T01:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/794050\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T01:58:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T01:58:10","slug":"bjorn-riley-wins-first-world-cup-at-andorra-xcc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/794050\/","title":{"rendered":"Bjorn Riley wins first World Cup at Andorra XCC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just hours after Rafaelle Carrier put Canada on the podium at the Pal Arinsal World Cup, Bjorn Riley gave the U.S. a World Cup win in Andorra. It\u2019s the Scott-SRAM racers first World Cup win, coming in the short-format XCC event.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The men\u2019s XCC World Cup podium in Andorra. Michael Cerveny \/ Whoop UCI Mountain Bike World Series
\nRiley riding high in 2026<\/p>\n

Riley win Friday is the new high point of a very strong 2026 season for the young North American and U.S. national champion. After squeezing onto a podium via a controversial DSQ earlier in the season, Riley\u2019s gone on to land several more top-three finishes. Frday, though, is his first win.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery race feels like the fulfilment of a dream. Winning is something you dream about your whole life, so actually doing it feels surreal. I don\u2019t think it\u2019s fully sunk in yet. Maybe later tonight, when I\u2019m trying to sleep, it\u2019ll hit me and I\u2019ll end up lying awake thinking about it. Right now, it just feels incredible,\u201d Riley enthused after the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many people had been telling me they wanted to see me win. It\u2019s amazing that people believe in me like that. Sometimes I still feel like the same kid who just loves riding his bike,\u201d Riley said, adding that it\u2019s making him feel more at home on the Scott-SRAM roster along side names like Schurter and Frischknecht. \u201cI absolutely love being part of this team, but it\u2019s a squad filled with champions. To feel like you truly belong, you have to perform at a high level. Little by little, I\u2019m starting to feel like I\u2019ve earned my place here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Riley led a podium that included to Specialized riders and two U.S. racers. Adrien Boichis (Specialized) couldn\u2019t quite land another win, but does move into the XCC overall lead with his second place finish. A resurgent Christopher Blevins, finding speed after a season of injuries, finishes third for both the U.S.A. and Specialized.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe all know each other\u2019s strengths, and heading into the final climb I knew Boichis has an explosive kick. I could tell he didn\u2019t quite have it on the climb today, and that\u2019s something I\u2019d been thinking about over the last couple of days,\u201d Riley explained, of how he got the W. \u201cNormally, I don\u2019t take big risks on the final lap because I\u2019m already happy with a podium but today felt different. I did get a bit nervous because when I looked back on the finishing straight, he was right there behind me. I\u2019m not used to having to sprint for the win, so that was a little scary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Woods leads Canadians in Andorra<\/p>\n

Carter Woods (Giant Factory Off-Road Team) was the top Canadian in the men\u2019s race. The Giant rider continues to work his way back up the standings, posting an impressive 10th in Andorra. Cole Puchard (Cannondale Factory Racing) followed in 32nd and Tyler Orschel (KMC Nukeproof), nursing an injury after a freak feedzone crash last weekend, 38th.<\/p>\n

Emilly Johnston (Scott-SRAM) was the only Canuck in the women\u2019s race, placing 28th.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Michael Cerveny \/ Whoop UCI Mountain Bike World Series
\nRissveds keeps win streak rolling<\/p>\n

In the women\u2019s race, Jenny Rissveds (Canyon Factory Racing) added another win to her steller 2026 campaign. The Swedish rider lives and trains nearby in Andorra and admitted racing at her home-away-from-home was nice.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels really good. I\u2019ve never really had a good short track here before. Even though I live here, I struggle with the altitude. No matter how much you adapt, and how much you try, it\u2019s always hard to be at altitude. Today was just good. I think the rain before the start really helped because it was so dusty here, so there were good conditions on the course and as always I love when the organisation let us ride on a natural course like this. Riding trails is super cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rissveds takes the win in Pal Arinsal over Laura Stigger (Specialized) and Ronja Bl\u00f6chlinger (Liv Factory Racing). Like most races this year, Friday\u2019s XCC was a fight from the first lap all theway to the finish line. Rissved\u2019s welcomes what she sees as a shift in how the women\u2019s field is racing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe racing has changed since last year. It\u2019s tighter. It used to be that at start\/finish, we\u2019d sit up and we recover, but this year, it\u2019s full gas the whole lap every race, which is really cool. I think we learned a little bit from the boys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Racing in Andorra continues all weekend with downhill finals and Olympic cross country events<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Just hours after Rafaelle Carrier put Canada on the podium at the Pal Arinsal World Cup, Bjorn Riley…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":794051,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[267912,49,48,169540,635,169541,1700,62722,82],"class_list":["post-794050","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-bjorn-riley","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-christopher-blevins","tag-cycling","tag-jenny-rissveds","tag-mtb-features","tag-mtb-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794050","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=794050"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794050\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/794051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=794050"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=794050"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=794050"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}