Durango's Howard Grotts raced to 12th at the UCI World Cup mountain bike race in Italy on Sunday, his best result yet in the elite World Cup field. Courtesy of Michal Cerveny

Charged by their goal to compete at the 2020 Olympics as mountain bike teammates for the United States, Durango’s Christopher Blevins and Howard Grotts put down their best results yet on the International Cycling Union (UCI) World Cup stage.

Blevins, 20, opened the morning of racing at Val di Sole, Italy, with a fifth-place finish in the men’s under-23 race. Grotts, 25, followed with a 12th-place finish in the elite men’s field.

Both of the Durango natives were the top American finishers. The two are now accumulating UCI points that will go toward the next Olympic cycle, and they aim to earn the U.S. two spots at the upcoming Games.

Switzerland’s Nino Schurter maintained his overall World Cup lead in the elite men’s standings with a win Sunday in a time of 1 hour, 26 minutes, 32 seconds. That was six seconds faster than second-place Gerhard Kerschbaumer of Italy. Mathieu Van Der Poel of the Netherlands was third, 1:09 back.

Grotts’ time of 1:29:26 was 2:54 off Schurter’s winning mark.

“It was a pretty solid start for me,” Grotts said in a phone interview with The Durango Herald. “I kept right at my call-up number, basically 39th after the start loop. I just turned in consistent laps. I didn’t want to go too hard too early. On this course, you can get excited because the climbs are so steep. They can take a toll later on. I was glad I had energy left in the tank for the last couple of laps because I made up 10 spots in two laps.”

Grotts’ previous best mark at a World Cup came when he was 13th last year in Andorra. He will race in Andorra again next weekend with eyes on his first top 10.

“The last couple of laps today, I could see up the road into like seventh or eighth place,” he said. “The climbs were really steep, so I was looking at trying to make up 30 or more seconds. It was extra motivation to really dig deep and try to pass a couple groups. I could see 10th place at the end, but I didn’t have enough daylight to pull that off.

“I want to crack that top 10, but I’m definitely happy with how things went.”

Grotts, who raced in only his second World Cup of the season this weekend, said he wasn’t exactly sure where his form would be for Sunday’s race, especially after he worked hard in Friday’s short-track race to move from 40th to 22nd. After he earned 85 points Sunday and 21 on Friday, Grotts is now 34th in the World Cup points standings and will see a better start position next week in Andorra. He hopes a strong short-track race could put him in one of the top-two rows. This is the first year the UCI has included short-track into the weekend of its mountain bike events.

“I will approach it like any other important race,” Grotts said. “I will use the same strategy I took into today and try to hit consistent lap times and conserve my energy but spend it wisely where I can.

“Short-track makes the weekend more hectic with two races to prepare for, but the opportunity to possibly earn a second- or first-row start for the cross-country is pretty huge and can help me immensely if I can pull that off in Andorra.”

Grotts said he had some extra motivation Sunday after watching Blevins’ fifth-place finish. Blevins was riding in second place when Grotts checked the live results, so he went down to the course to cheer on his fellow Durangoan.

Norway’s Petter Fagerhaug won in 1:16:40 to claim 90 UCI points. Blevins was only 38 seconds back, as he earned 40 points. France’s Joshua Dubau was second, 18 seconds back.

Elite races award five podium places, but under-23 only selects three for the podium.

“Seeing Chris was one of the highlights of the week,” Grotts said. “I checked out the live timing and saw he was riding in second. I got on the course and cheered him on for the last few laps. The guys behind him were charging. It was a bummer to have him see the podium slip away, but he’s clearly riding incredibly well.

“It looked like he was having fun on the course, doing manuals, hitting the jumps. It’s so fun watching Chris ride a bike.”

Blevins, who will also race next week in Andorra, is now 20th in the individual standings.

After Andorra, the two will head to Snowshoe Mountain in West Virginia for USA Cycling nationals July 17-22.

Blevins is the defending under-23 cross-country national champ, while Grotts has won three consecutive elite national titles.

Last year, Blevins also challenged Grotts for the short-track title before a mechanical problem ended his shot.