Christopher Blevins and Samara Maxwell walk away from Brazil Mountain Bike World Series opening rounds on top of XCO leaderboards

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Christopher Blevins and Samara Maxwell have come out on top of the rankings after the two opening battles of Whoop UCI Mountain Bike World Series in Brazil, which finished with a scorching cross-country Olympic (XCO) battle in Araxá on Saturday.

Blevins claimed the elite men's red leader’s jersey and accompanying number 1 race plate from Specialized Factory teammate Victor Koretzky after winning Saturday’s XCO race, a reversal of the course used for round one, and also the short-track Friday.

That lifted his points total to 610 at the end of round 2, carving out a 100 point gap to Koretzky, who finished sixth in the cross-country race on Saturday after having some trouble with his lungs on the run-in. 

Even though Koretzky fell away from the top spots on the final climb of the XCO race it was another Specialized Factory Racing sweep of the top three in round 2. Martin Vidaurre was second this time and Adrien Boichis charged into third. As a result the team also hold the top four series spots overall. 

"I’ll take it race by race," said Blevins, discussing his overall lead in comments from the UCI Mountain Bike Series media release. "It's a long year and a lot can change. I’ve just got to do my process, just as I would if it didn't go well this weekend. 

"I’ll stay focused on the next one, I really want to perform well in Europe so that’s my goal now.”

In the elite women's race Maxwell had lined up for round two of racing wearing the leader’s jersey after claiming the top spot in the round one XCO race at Araxá, her opening World Cup, as well as second in the short-track behind Evie Richards (Trek Factory). 

In round two of the racing Richards was once again the short-track winner, though this time Maxwell finished eighth before lining up for a hot cross-country Olympic race on Saturday. While Jenny Rissveds (Canyon-CLLCTV) who claimed the round 2 XCO win with a long solo sortie, Maxwell bounced back to comfortably retain the overall lead with second place on Saturday.

"It’s crazy. Brazil has been pretty insane for me to have these results," said Maxwell.

The 23-year-old now has 550 points, 105 points ahead of second-placed Rissveds  and heading into the third round in Nové Město from May 23-25. 

It certainly wasn't the position Maxwell expected to be in on shifting into the elite ranks after having worked through a considerable number of challenges in recent years from an eating disorder to Red Energy Deficiency in Sport (RED-S). Even after the win in the first round, her hopes weren't high for the second as the reversed court didn’t suit her as well and she had also had a tough run-in.

"I was not expecting that this week, I got my period at the start of the week and I was a mess," said Maxwell. "Like I was out, I couldn’t eat, couldn’t move – I was just in a foetal position for about three days with cramps but I just hoped it would get better and it did.

"Then the next day I just K’od on a corner so I’m covered in bandages ... so I was just enjoying it out there, no expectations. So to come second is incredible."