Mountainbiking: World champion Sammie Maxwell bags second straight victory in US

World Champion Sammie Maxwell (centre) on the podium at Snowshoe, USA. Photo / UCI

Taupō's world champion mountain biker Sammie Maxwell has bagged her second straight cross-country under-23 women’s title win at the UCI MTB World Cup at Snowshoe in West Virginia in the US.

Maxwell dominated in an impressive display to back up her win in France last month to move to third overall in the rankings.

The national champion from Taupō celebrated the win in her first outing with a new professional team, Rock Rider Ford, with an impressive display.

She rode with championship leader Ronja Blochlinger over the first lap, but from there stamped her authority on the field, clearing out to 10 seconds on lap two and then growing the gap to win in 1:10.49.

The Swiss rider was over a minute back but retained her commanding lead in the championship.

Maxwell closed to within 75 points of second-placed Heby Sofie Pederson (Denmark) going into the final round next weekend at Mt Sainte Anne in Quebec, Canada.

“I am so stoked. It is such an amazing course. I was looking forward to it all week,” Maxwell said.

“This week is more special because I have a new team in Rock Rider Ford, who have been helping me out so much all week. This week has been incredible with this. I just wanted to give back to the new team. This so cool.”

Maxwell even joked that a slip on the first lap was because she did not want to damage her new team bike.

“I hit a slippery root on the first lap and did not want to damage the new bike, so I chested into the tree. I didn’t want to give the mechanics more work to do.”

Of the other Kiwis in the race, Ruby Ryan was 28th, Annabel Bligh (Team Talleys) 31st and Amelie MacKay (Team Talleys) 33rd.

Ethan Rose (Team Talleys) was the best of the New Zealand riders in the under-23 men’s category, with Caleb Bottcher 39th and Matthew Wilson 43rd.

The elite races are still to come later on Monday (NZT).

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