Mountain Biker Haley Batten Reaches World Championship Podium Twice In Les Gets

Haley Batten competes during the women's cross-country team relay at the 2022 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships on Aug. 28, 20212 in Les Gets, France.

Haley Batten was aiming for a world championship podium finish this week in Les Gets, France.
She captured two.
Four days after helping the U.S. to a third-place finish in the cross-country team relay at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships, Batten finished third Sunday in the elite women’s cross-country race.
Batten, a 2020 Olympian who finished ninth in her Olympic debut last year in Tokyo, held on to third place in the final two laps to clinch her first individual world championships medal at any age level.
Batten finished with a time of 1 hour, 24 minutes, 21 seconds, placing third behind Pauline Ferrand Prevot of France and Olympic champion Jolanda Neff of Switzerland. She was in second place in the early portion of the race, then powered into third place after falling into fourth at the end of the fourth lap.
The 23-year-old from Park City, Utah, also finished third in a world cup race in July in Mont-Sainte-Anne, Quebec. In her last three cross-country races, Batten has finished third twice and seventh once.
Her previous best finish at a world championship was fourth in the women’s under-23 race in 2020.
Batten rode the fifth of six laps for the U.S. in its bronze-medal finish in the team relay Wednesday. Also on the relay team were Christopher Blevins, Cayden Parker, Madigan Munro, Bailey Cioppa and Riley Amos.
“It’s a really great race track,” Batten said. “It has everything for a mountain bike athlete. You have to be a talented climber as well as a technical rider.”
Batten, then a U23 cyclist, also was on the U.S. relay team which won a silver medal at the 2019 world championships.