2025 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships: Rissveds' redemption

From XCC silver to XCO gold

Sweden’s Jenny Rissveds took her first Elite cross-country Olympic (XCO) title of UCI World Champion on Saturday on a dry, rooty course in Crans-Montana, Switzerland.

Second-placed Alessandra Keller (SUI) claimed her third medal of the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships taking place across the Swiss canton of Valais (1-14 September). Meanwhile, her compatriot Finn Treudler completed the ‘full set’ of medals when he took gold in the Men Under 23 XCO race.

Rissveds from start to finish

2016 Olympic Champion Rissveds took the early initiative, pulling out a gap from Italy’s Martina Berta, Candice Lill (RSA), 2024 UCI World Champion Puck Pieterse (NED), New Zealand’s Samara Maxwell, Keller and Great Britain’s Evie Richards.

Rissveds had won the last round of the 2025 UCI XCO World Cup by riding away solo from the start and never looking back. She appeared to have the same tactic in Crans-Montana when, as she started the second lap of seven laps, she had built a gap of 13 seconds.

Then Keller – who outsprinted Rissveds to the Women Elite cross-country short track (XCC) UCI world title on Tuesday – and Maxwell – who has graced the podium at every round of the 2025 UCI XCO World Cup – closed in on Rissveds. Richards, Pieterse and Berta rode together 20 seconds back.

A small crash on a rooty descent saw Keller fall back into the clutches of 2021 UCI World Champion Richards, then the pair returned to the lead duo. As Rissveds notched up the power again, the Briton slipped back and rode with the Dutch Champion Pieterse. Berta, meanwhile, faded back to Nicole Koller (SUI) and Savilla Blunk (USA).

At half distance the front trio were inseparable. The Richards/Pieterse pairing fell 10, then 20, seconds back, but were still a minute clear of their pursuers until the Dutchwoman, who won two rounds of the UCI World Cup earlier this season, punctured. She lost time but retained fifth position.

Approaching an hour’s race time, Rissveds continued to turn the screw on the climbs, pushing a 10-second gap over Maxwell and Keller. As the Swede took the bell, Keller fell back from the Kiwi, and Richards sensed the possibility of a medal, after the disappointment of puncturing out of third position in the XCC race. But a stall on the final lap’s first climb put paid to the Briton’s ambitions.

After her Under 23 XCO win in 2016, Rissveds finally took the Elite XCO UCI world title and the rainbow bands to sit alongside her Olympic gold medal. She won in 1:21:35, Maxwell took silver (+0:18) and Keller, who left nothing out on the course, took bronze to rapturous applause (+0:56).

“We all say that we want to become [UCI] World Champion, it’s something we say from a very early age… but I think this year is the first year I really, really wanted it. It’s a pretty amazing feeling to achieve that,” said Jenny Rissveds.

“I knew that I was in good shape and I could manage to pull it off, but it was a close fight today, and I really had to keep believing in it.”

Treudler solos to Swiss gold

In the Men Under 23 race earlier in the day, a group was formed by the pre-race favourites including Switzerland’s Finn Treudler, Canada’s Cole Punchard and Denmark’s Gustav Pedersen along with the Netherlands’ Rens Teunissen van Manen, Germany’s Paul Schehl and France’s Adrien Boichis.

The Frenchman started well – better than he did in the Under 23 XCC race that he won on Tuesday – but soon found he couldn’t stay with the pace. Punchard provided the challenge, leading briefly.

Treudler, silver medalist in the XCC on Tuesday, and bronze in Thursday’s team relay, was full of energy, confidence and drive to win at home in the Swiss jersey. After dictating the speed from the front, he started to pull away on lap 3 of 8. By halfway, he had a gap of 20 seconds over Punchard (XCC bronze medalist), which had doubled by the start of lap 6, and became 1 minute after an hour of racing, on the penultimate lap.

Pedersen, in 3rd, was around 1 minute further back at the bell. His fellow Dane Mikkel Lose, along with Schehl, Teunissen van Manen and Norway’s Sivert Ekroll were 50 seconds behind him but closing in, having dropped Boichis. But the podium places were looking secure.

An emotional Treudler crossed the line in 1:20:25 for gold, silver for Punchard (+0:54), and bronze for Pedersen (+2:14).

“There is no better feeling than racing at home, in the front, and fighting for a world title,” beamed Finn Treudler.

“My plan was to attack after three laps and just ride my own pace because I know I can go super hard on the climbs. It was so loud, I’ve never experienced something like this, and it was really special today.”