Part of the 2025 UCI Mountain Bike Marathon World Championships, the rainbow jersey battles for cross-country marathon (XCM) on Saturday 6 September will take riders through the alps of Valais, Switzerland, from Verbier to Grimentz.
It will be the third time the XCM UCI World Champions are crowned in Switzerland, after 2003 in Lugano (the first time the UCI World Championships were held for this mountain bike speciality) and 2019 in Grächen, also in the Canton of Valais. In the meantime, races have been hosted as far afield as South Africa, the USA and Türkiye.
But for 2025, it’s a test along the route of the Grand Raid BCVS, an iconic XCM race held for the last 30 years through the breathtaking beauty of the Swiss Alps, with views of the Matterhorn and Mont Blanc.
With a start point at nearly 1,500m altitude in Verbier, riders will climb and descend approximately 5,000m over the 125km distance before reaching the finish line in the beautiful village of Grimentz in the Val d'Anniviers. They will face the climb up La Croix-de-Cœur and Pas de Lona, which is the most difficult climb and is located towards the end of the race, peaking at 2,787 metres. The lowest point of the course is halfway, at an altitude of 1,270 meters, in Hérémence.
See the course route and its peaks here.
The entry list features 111 men, representing 25 countries and 61 women from 24 countries. The men’s field will set offat 06:40am, followed by the women five minutes later. Race time is estimated at around 6 hours for men and 7h30 for women, although XCM is typically weather-dependent, and pace varies according to the strategies of key protagonists.
Current and former UCI World Champions back for more
In the men’s competition, Andreas Seewald (GER) and Héctor Leonardo Páez León (COL), who, between them hold the 2019, 2020 and 2021 titles, are each looking to claim another gold, while recent UCI World Championships podium athletes David Valero Serrano (ESP) and Martin Stošek (CZE) are also both set to race. 2024 UCI Mountain Bike Cross-country Marathon World Champion Simon Andreassen (DEN) and runner-up Christopher Blevins (USA), as well as 2022 UCI World Champion Sam Gaze (NZL) have chosen to focus on the cross-country Olympic (XCO) race the following weekend, while 2023 and 2018 UCI World Champion Henrique Avancini (BRA) has retired from top-level competition.
In the women’s competition, it’s difficult not to focus on Austria’s Mona Mitterwallner. At the age of just 23, the reigning UCI World Champion who won last year in Snowshoe (USA) as well as in Glentress, Scotland (United Kingdom) in 2023, and Elba (Italy) in 2021 has already written a significant page in XCM history. But could she be the first rider – woman or man – to win three in a row since Norway’s Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjå (2004-2006)? And can she become only the third person with four titles, behind Dahle Flesjå and Denmark’s Annika Langvad, who each have five?
Mitterwallner won’t face her Snowshoe podium rivals Sina Frei (SUI) and Candice Lill (RSA), who have opted for Sunday’s XCO race, but will have plenty of serious competition, not least with Germany’s Adelheid Morath. The XCM bronze medallist at the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships is amongst the top riders in this year’s HERO UCI Cross-country Marathon World Cup, where the biggest threats lie…
HERO UCI Cross-country Marathon World Cup form guide
Many of the names in the XCM honour roll come from XCO racing, as there is a significant crossover between the two specialities. However, 2025 has seen a revamped UCI World Cup for XCM, where four of the five rounds have already been completed. This gives us a great form guide over the longer race format.
In the men’s competition, victories have been claimed by Wout Alleman (BEL), Colombia’s Páez Léon and the two most recent rounds by the German Seewald, who is in the lead of the overall UCI World Cup standings. The season’s other podium athletes are the Italian trio of Gioele De Cosmo, Andrea Siffredi and 2024 overall UCI World Cup winner Fabian Rabensteiner.
The women’s competition sees the Netherlands’ Rosa van Doorn in amazing form, having won three of the four rounds raced so far and topping the overall table, while Sandra Mairhofer won her home race in Selva Val Gardena, Italy. Also on the podiums this year have been 2024 overall UCI World Cup winner Vera Looser (NAM), second overall in 2024 Lejla Njemčević (BIH), Mara Fumagalli (ITA), Paula Gorycka (POL), and Adelheid Morath.