The U23 Riley Amos rises to number 1 in the UCI ranking ahead of Koretzky, Schurter, Fluckiger, or Sarrou

As every week, the UCI has updated the XCO Elite ranking but this time at the top there is a cyclist 22 years old who still competes in the U23 category. This is the American Riley Amos and he has managed to become number 1 after practically winning all the races he has competed in 2024.

U23 cyclist Riley Amos takes the lead in the UCI ranking

American Riley Amos, at 22 years old, is one of the most promising XCO cyclists on the international scene. And with the national champion jersey in his category, the Trek Factory Racing rider is dominating this season in the World Cup. He has won all the XCO races in the World Cup and also all the Short Tracks, except for a second place he achieved in the XCC in Val di Sole. But how can U23 cyclist be above all the elite category in the UCI ranking?

The truth is that since the Ranking was published with Riley Amos in the first position, many think that perhaps some of the rules about this points system need to be changed. Jose Hermina himself expressed this on his social media: "Apart from Riley Amos being an undeniable talent, the points system has some flaws."

And it is that in the Elite XCO Ranking, the UCI includes the Elite and U23 cyclists who have scored the most points in UCI competitions, but with the caveat that in the U23 races, many fewer points are distributed.

The problem arises when a cyclist manages to take all the points from the U23 category, this time it is Riley Amos doing it but in his day Vlad Dascalu was also very high in the Ranking winning a large part of the World Cup and World Championship races, and this situation combines with an Elite category where the top cyclists are not particularly consistent for some weeks or they simply skip World Cup races. Just what is happening this season, where only Pidcock has won two World Cup races this season, the only two he has competed in. And among the rest of the winners we have seen very irregular results, like Koretzky who made the podium in Brazil but has finished in very low positions in Val di Sole (24th) and Nove Mesto (20th) and missed the race in Crans Montana, or Chris Blevins who won the first XCO race in Brazil and has not entered the Top 20 since then.

Surely the current Elite XCO Ranking system can be improved, but what do you think of the current one? Do you think it would be a good idea to separate the Elite category? We read your comments on our social media.