2025 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships: record-breaking E-MTB cross-country battles

Gilloux and Spielmann crowned

Frenchman Jérôme Gilloux won a record fourth UCI World title for E-mountain bike cross-country in Bellwald – Aletsch Arena (Switzerland) on Thursday. Shortly beforehand, Austrian Anna Spielmann had taken gold in the women’s race, her country’s first ever medal in the UCI World Championships for the mountain bike speciality.

The second medal day of the 2025 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships – taking place in Valais, Switzerland, from 1 to 14 September – saw racing brought forward by two hours to avoid an electrical storm forecast across the region.

Spielmann does it for Austria

Spielmann, who won the overall 2024 UCI E-Mountain Bike Cross-country World Cup, pulled out a quick lead over the Swiss pair of Kathrin Stirnemann and two-time UCI World Champion (2023 and 2019) Nathalie Schneitter. In second position, Stirnemann initially held station but by half distance the gap had steadily grown to 21 seconds.

Meanwhile Schneitter had dropped back to a 1:20 deficit and formed a trio with Germany’s Sofia Wiedenroth –winner of the last two rounds of this year’s UCI E-Mountain Bike Cross-country World Cup and silver medallist at the 2024 UCI World Championships – and France’s Laura Charles, silver medallist in the 2021 UCI World Championships.

2024 bronze medallist Florencia Espiñeira Herreros was in fifth position but fading. The Chilean’s chances of winning a second medal at the 2025 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships, following her silver in Monday’s E-Enduro, were disappearing, and the five riders who would contest the three medals were clear.

The 2025 UCI World Cup overall leader Wiedenroth pulled clear of the chase group. A medal was in her sights, yet the gap to silver and gold continued to grow on the fifth and final lap, and the 30-year-old knew she would have to settle for bronze.

The day belonged to 27-year-old Spielmann. After failing to finish at the 2024 UCI Worlds, she becomes UCI World Champion in only her third season of E-mountain bike competition. She led from start to finish, scoring Austria’s first medal… gold!

Fourth for Gilloux

As the 20 starters took to the line of the men’s race, many stories were waiting to be written. Would Jérôme Gilloux take an unprecedented fourth title? Could Joris Ryf reclaim his crown (he was UCI World Champion in 2023) on home soil? Might 2025 be the year Frenchman Hugo Pigeon would claim the elusive gold? Or maybe Dutchman Jeroen van Eck could become the first rider to claim rainbow jerseys for both E-mountain bike cross-country and mountain bike eliminator? Six laps of the punishing 2.6km circuit would decide which version of history would be recorded.

It was Ryf who took the early advantage with Pigeon, Italy’s Mirko Tabacchi, Gilloux and Great Britain’s Robert Williams in touch. When the leaders completed the second full lap they crossed the line in the order they had finished in Glentress, Scotland (United Kingdom) in 2023: Ryf and Pigeon together, with Gilloux just 9 seconds back. While the chasers were losing touch, Gilloux passed his compatriot and the three podium athletes looked clear: Gilloux, Ryf and Pigeon were entrenched in battle.

It wasn’t until the first half of lap five that 31-year-old Gilloux passed Ryf (27) to lead for the first time of the afternoon. After more than 40 minutes at full gas, heading into the sixth and final lap, only 4 seconds separated the three favourites – there had never been more than 10 seconds separating the three of them throughout the whole race.

Ultimately, it was the experienced Frenchman who held on for the win, now having medalled at all seven UCI E-Mountain Bike Cross-country World Championships, right back to the 2019 inaugural event in Mont-Sainte-Anne, Canada. Ryf settled for silver (+0:07) and Pigeon took his fifth UCI World Championships medal, his second bronze (+0:11).