Going into this year’s UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Val Di Sole, Italy, there was a fair amount of optimism for the British team and medals. Val Di Sole is a legendary and tough venue to master, and one where British racers have had great success over the years. This time around was set to be a close-run thriller in all disciplines, and the Brits certainly didn’t disappoint.
XCC Short Track – silver linings
First of the ‘big three’ disciplines up for the Brits at the Championship was the XCC, or cross-country short track, where elite medal hopes lay firmly on the shoulders of Evie Richards and Charlie Aldridge.
As a World Championship discipline, XCC has only been around since 2021. Thanks to its now integral ‘prelude’ staging to the original XCO cross-country World Series, the genre is positively thriving.
As the elite women took flight, the expected dominance of Jenny Rissveds and Sina Frei looked set to pan out in line with the form book. However, those odds were flipped in the later stages of the race, and going into the last lap, former world champion Richards took the helm.
Dropping down into the final twists and turns to the finish line, all looked just about set for the Malvern ace to take home another rainbow jersey. Into those final cruel meters, Austrian rider Laura Stigger put in the sprint of her life. With a road sprint-style throw of the bike, she nudged past Richards to score victory in the final few meters of the race, and by one of the narrowest margins we’ve seen in the sport.
The big question going into the elite men’s event was if anyone could beat French racer Adrien Boichis. As the racing got underway, the first noted omissions from the start line were Britain’s Tom Pidcock and Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel, both choosing to focus on the XCO race rather than trying to break up the recent French dominance in XCC.
From the off, the French trio of Boichis, Luca Martin and Mathis Azzaro were at the front, although GB’s Charlie Aldridge and a few others rode very wisely and managed to crack what looked set to be a French medal flush. Aldridge had taken the front several times during the race, and on the final lap he put the hammer down, which ruptured the French trio’s command.
Coming into the short finishing straight, the Scotsman led out the final sprint, with just Boichis able to match his speed. Those final few meters of the race were, again, to break British hearts. Boichis just got past Aldridge to take the title, leaving the Brit with his second ever elite World Championship silver medal in the discipline.
Making it three XCC silvers for the Brits was Bethany-Ann Jackson, who was also narrowly beaten to the line in the U23 title race.
Downhill: bronzed at the 11th
The Val Di Sole downhill run is well known as a steep, tough, rough and technical track. This time around, fair conditions awaited the riders, and with such close time margins of late, this was set to be a race where it was a case of all or nothing for those in the hunt for a medal.
This has also been a season of change, with a whole bunch of top young riders stepping up to the elite ranks – and winning World Cups. We’ve also seen many of the expected challengers either sidelined or simply not quite hitting their best form. Add in the ‘re-emergence’ to the top steps of the World Cup by the likes of Britain’s Jordan Williams, and Hattie Harnden’s breakthrough World Cup win a week earlier, and the Brits held great hopes going into the finals.
The times were running super close, although Harnden had a scorching second half to her run and took the hot seat for some time. She would eventually drop to third place as the last rider down; Vali Holl dropped in to take her fifth consecutive rainbow jersey. Taking a solid seventh place was Britain’s Tahnee Seagrave, returning after taking some time out of racing to focus on training.
The elite men’s race turned into a surprising nail-biter as New Zealand racer Lachlan Stevens-McNab put in the run of his life to take the lead. The anticipated French dominance here simply didn’t play out, leaving them with just one rider inside the top 15 (the lesser-known Antoine Pierron, brother of Amaury).
Meanwhile, Britain’s Jordon Williams had put in a storming run and held second spot right up until the final run – that of Jackson Goldstone. Following a relatively low-profile results year, the Canadian duly defended his 2025 title, with Williams dropping to the third spot.
Britain’s junior star Felix Griffiths had a great run to add another silver medal to the British haul, and missed gold by less than half a second.
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On a side note, perhaps the most interesting tech choice of the weekend was that of Belgian racer Martin Maes, who raced on a prototype aluminium Orbea Rallon DH – armed with a 32-inch front and 27.5-inch rear wheel. Maes had quite some input in the evolution of the Rallon, and he finished 21st as the only Orbea team rider using this set-up.
XCO cross-country, doubling up
Going into the final Elite title races of the weekend, the XCO cross-country events, and great battles were expected – and they certainly proved to be just that. For the male Brits, this was a historic occasion, with Tom Pidcock and Charlie Aldridge finishing first and second in the race.
The women’s race was anticipated to largely be fought out between defending Champion Jenny Rissveds of Sweden and Sina Frei of Switzerland. The duo has virtually dominated the World Series this year, although they were upstaged in the XCC race a few days earlier, so the form books were looking a little more open.
From the off, Frei was in control and leading from the front, slowly stripping the field apart. Rissveds clung on with Italian Martina Berta, and was suffering mechanical woes, while Frei’s confidence and power never looked in doubt.
The Swiss racer powered on alone to take victory by over a minute from Berta. Britain’s former Champ Evie Richards made her way through the field to take a great sixth-place finish.
Going into the men’s race, French dominance was expected, with Adrien Boichis the firm favourite. However, further down the starting grid were Olympic Champion Tom Pidcock and Dutchman Mathieu van der Poel.
Sure enough, Boichis and co put the hammer down early on. As the field stretched and broke apart, Britain’s Charlie Aldridge was the prime disrupter for the French as they kept the pace high to prevent Pidcock and MVDP from reeling them in.
Eventually Pidcock did make the catch, leaving eight riders out front, who duly applied more pressure to deny him any recovery time. Pidcock seemed to be losing contact with the lead for a while, but when he did recover and make his move to the front, the state of play changed dramatically.
As Pidcock applied relentless pressure, the group shattered, and Boichis cracked, ending the French rainbow dream. The only rider able to follow was Aldridge, leaving the two Brits out front. Eventually Aldridge dropped back, and Pidcock crossed the line solo for an emotional victory. Aldridge came in for his second silver of the Championships, with his Canadian Cannondale teammate Cole Punchard taking bronze.
For the British contingent, this proved to be a great and successful Championships all-round, and it bodes well for the future at the sharp end of the sport for the Brits.
