A July showdown in Pennsylvania displayed just how competitive women’s mountain bike racing has become at the elite level in the U.S.

Savilia Blunk, who is attempting to make her first Olympic team in 2024, battled 2020 Olympian Kate Courtney to the finish in the national championship race, winning by a mere five seconds.

Gwendalyn Gibson, a 2022 world bronze medalist in short track, finished third in that same race, a little over six minutes behind.

All three are California-bred riders who, along with 2022 world championships bronze medalist Haley Batten, have helped boost the U.S. women into fifth place in the UCI rankings. Now Blunk, Courtney and Gibson are now positioned for a run at the podium when the cross-country world championship race is held Aug. 12 in Glasgow, Scotland.

“I think it’s the most competitive the American women have been like, ever,” Blunk, 24, of Inverness, California, said. “We have at least five of us who are really tight and battling together. It’s really great. We are all pushing each other, bringing each other to the next level.”

Added Gibson: “I honestly think each time we race and the order of how we finish has kind of been shuffling every time. I think it just lights a fire every time.”

Those fires will burn deeply in Glasgow. The championship race not only has a rainbow jersey for the champion at stake but also an automatic spot in the Olympic Games Paris 2024. The top three finishers lock up those Olympic spots, and the American women will be among those in the furious chase for the podium.

“It’s going to be intense because everybody is gunning for that spot,” Blunk said.

“Me, Savilia and Kate are all riding super strong this year,” said Gibson, 24, of Ramona, California. “We’ve all been showing good in the world cups. I think we’re all capable of having a good result.”

Of the three, Courtney, 27, has the longest resume, which includes a world title from 2018. The native of Kentfield, California, finished 15th in her Olympic debut two years ago in Tokyo and is the only American with a top-10 UCI individual ranking. (Kelsey Urban, another California native who was on the national team at age 16 and is a close friend of Batten, also was named to the U.S. team but later declined her starting position.)

Sitting back home and watching anxiously will be Batten, who pulled out of the national championships in July and then the world championships as she recovers from a concussion she sustained during a world cup training run in June.

“It’s a super big bummer,” Blunk said of Batten. “It’s just crazy. It shows how quickly things can change in this sport.”

The Top Group Of U.S. Women’s Mountain Bikers Are As Competitive As Ever

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