Over the past two weeks, Switzerland hosted the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships. From locations such as Champery, Verbier, and Crans Montana, each brought huge excitement and some memorable results. Here’s how it all went down.
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Enduro and E-MTB Enduro
First on stage at this year’s championships were the enduro riders, both in the regular and eMTB format, and Britain went into the women’s racing with high medal hopes in both.
Run over two days, and on day one, the British women made a strong start, with Ella Conolly taking the lead and Hattie Harnden holding strong in 6th, while the omnipresent Tracy Mosely snared the lead in the e-enduro.
Unfortunately, Moseley had a couple of mishaps on day two, but still managed to cling on for the bronze medal, a phenomenal feat given that she’s now 46 years old and that this was 30 years after scoring her first British national title.
Conolly also dropped a slot into silver on day two, just behind Canada’s Elly Hoskin, while Harnden rose to 4th place, making it a solid start for the Brits, and defining some clear British Enduro rainbow hopes for the near future.
The men’s Enduro title fell to the grand master himself, Richie Rude of the USA.
Downhill
The British have an unfathomably impressive World Championship record when it comes to downhill, ranking second only to the French in terms of medal hauls over the years. This time around, all looked rosy for the large Brit pack, with Tahnee Seagrave being the brightest hope to score gold in the Elite Women’s race.
The ultra-steep and rooted Champery course is notoriously tough to master, and this year the riders were blessed with grippy and dry conditions on race day, making the task of surviving the mountain a little easier.
It was to be the veteran French ace Myriam Nicole who stole a staggeringly big lead early on, though into the last handful of big favourites, and Seagrave started fast, as the only one who was matching her early time. Somehow, amidst the tree cover and gnarly stuff, she fell afoul of time and dropped down to finish in a disappointed seventh spot, while it was only the last rider on track who managed to topple the French rider – and this, of course, was Austrian rainbow catcher Valenta Holl.
Meanwhile, Britain’s Pheobe Gale took a solid 11th spot, and Hattie Harnden came down hard in the closing sector of the race.
All bets were on the young Canadian Jackson Goldstone, and he didn’t disappoint in taking his first Men’s Elite world title ahead of the surprise of the race, Henri Kiefer of Germany, with Jordon Williams the best Brit in 4th spot. Last man on course was the great Loic Bruni, who, in an effort to risk all to top the Canadian, took an uncharacteristic fall, ending any French hopes of another downhill world title win.
Marathon
This year’s Marathon title race took place a week before the XCO races, giving rise to the hope of more XC specialists taking a shot at glory on the classic and tough Gran Raid marathon route between Verbier and Grimentz.
On the day, a few were surprised to see that American flyer Keegan Swenson had signed on and duly went on to win his first world title after breaking clear on a climb late in the very hilly race.
Doubling up for the Americans, in another surprise start, was Kate Courtney, the former XCO World Champ who has turned her hand to marathon racing as a privateer this year, making for a true American dream of a day in the Swiss Alps.
Cross Country – XCC
What corkers the short track XCC races turned out to be this year, though, sadly not for the Brits. Held in the retro-chic mountain town of Zermatt and with the mist-shrouded Matterhorn towering behind the track, the short track racing took place on a dry circuit iced with a number of slippery, damp sections, and these made for some real seat of your shorts racing.
In the Elite Women’s race, the undoubted dominant duo from the get-go were Swedish veteran Jenny Rissveds and current Swiss star Alessandra Keller. Although Rissveds very much looked to be in control of the race, it was an incredibly close and intense race behind her, with Britain’s defending champ Evie Richards fighting to stay within striking distance of the medals, only to flat in the closing stages.
On the last lap, Keller made her move by lunging down the drop into the finishing sprint, and the Swede simply couldn’t break her shadow, making for a great day for the home riders, while Isla Short finished in 15th for Team GB.
The Elite Men’s race was perhaps even more intense, with a stretched, yet not quite broken chain of the best XC racers in the world going elbow to elbow from the flip of the start lights.
Much of the pace was set by French rider Matthis Azzaro, who was ultimately to finish third. He was seemingly split between setting things up for his teammate, eventual winner Victor Koretzky, and taking his own long shot at glory. Unfortunately, British medal hope Charlie Aldridge didn’t start the race due to contracting Covid.
Into the final lap and USA’s title favourite, Chris Blevins, rode into a narrow lead, with his Specialized teammate Koretzky going all for the chase. Taking a wild and speedy risk over the final rock garden and berms, Koretzky managed to pull that extra ounce of wound-up warp speed into the sprint, taking the American by surprise and winning his second consecutive XCC title.
The best XCC Brit placing was Ella Maclean-Howell in 7th place in the U23 race.
Cross Country XCO
The grand finale of the Championships was the Elite XCO/cross country racing, which took place on a new course and technical and testing trails of Crans Montana, a long-time host venue for top draw MTB racing, and it didn’t disappoint this time around either.
Following some overnight dampening down, things had dried out nicely for the Elite Women’s race.
Right from the flip of the light switch, odds-on favourite and former Olympic Champion Jenny Rissveds of Sweeden took the lead, much as she had done earlier in week with the XCC race, only there she was pipped to the line on the run in by Swiss ace Alessander Keller, who was one again hanging tight in the shadow of the Swede for much of the race, with New Zealand’s star of the moment, Samara Maxwell, fighting hard to hold the leading duo.
Close behind them was a battle royale, led by Britain’s former XCO Champ Evie Richards and 2024 Champ Puck Pieterse of the Netherlands, though in truth, barring mishap or serious hesitation, the leading trio were looking unlikely to be reeled in.
Rissveds didn’t miss a beat, though Keller missed a few on the technical sections, leaving Rissveds to ride to a dominant solo victory, with Maxwell just a fistful of seconds ahead of Keller in second. Just behind them, Richards came in fourth, while Isla Short finished in 14th, making it a pretty decent, but medal-free day out for the Brits.
Following a greasy U23 Women’s XCO race dominated by Canadian sensation Isabella Holmgren, things dried out to be fast and grippy for the Elite Men and the final race of the championship. From the start, it looked to be a predictable race that was in store, with Victor Koretzky and Chris Blevins taking a powerful lead, while the “wildcard” Matthieu van der Poel of the Netherlands was fast-moving through the field behind. However, as the leading duo dabbed on the roots, defending champion Alan Hatherly of South Africa cruised past them on a smoother low line, and that was pretty much game over for the title.
Following his first full pro road season, there were doubts over whether Hatherly’s technical skills would be polished enough to stay out front. Riding as smooth as silk, he pulled out more than a one and a half minute lead at times and left the others struggling for scraps of bronze and silver behind – with Italian rider Simone Avondetto distancing Koretzky on the road drag to the line to take second.
Britain’s Charlie Aldridge finished 21st, while MVDP slipped down to 29th. Sadly, it was not to be a last rainbow hoorah for the mighty Nino Schurter, who finished 42nd in his last ever Elite XCO World Championships, marking the end of an era for XCO racing; will his record of 10 Elite World titles ever be matched?
The takeaway?
It was great to have such classic locations for this year’s racing, though the two-week format did seem a little excessive and drawn out, which is also not so easy for teams, budgets, and media coverage. The racing itself was top draw, and it’s great to see the continuing rise in numbers at the sharp end for the Canadians and also for New Zealanders. Although it wasn’t a bad fortnight for the Brits – it has to be said that it wasn’t their best World Champs in recent times – though, I guess through the downhillers in particular, we’ve been spoiled in glory for a while now.
I guess there may be, or perhaps should be, some reconsideration of the viability of certain disciplines as championship events for the future. In addition to the eMTB racing we touched on last week, perhaps the team relay also needs a viability check?
