2025 UCI Mountain Bike World Championshps: USA dominates cross-country marathon

First XCM titles for Courtney and Swenson

The Swiss Alps provided a stunning stage for the cross-country marathon (XCM) races at the 2025 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Valais, Switzerland.

The 125km race from Verbier to Grimentz on Saturday 5 September saw Americans Kate Courtney and Keegan Swenson ride to victory in the in the Val d'Anniviers valley.

Swenson after six hours of effort

After setting off from Verbier just before daybreak, the leading men crossed the first time check in Nendaz at around 1hr 20 mins, with some familiar names from the UCI cross-country Olympic (XCO) World Cup at the fore.

Spain’s David Valero Serrano – 2020 Olympic and 2022 UCI World Championships medallist in XCO, and third at last year’s UCI Mountain Bike Marathon World Championships in Snowshoe, USA – was running first (1:20:53.0) followed by two Swiss athletes Dario Lillo and Alexandre Balmer. Swenson was in 5th, Czechia’s Ondřej Cink 6th and former UCI World Champions Andreas Seewald (GER) and Héctor Leonardo Páez León (COL) also in the mix.

Cink, winner of a round of this year’s UCI XCO World Cup, had taken the lead by the Hérémence check point, but 31-year-old Swenson led at checkpoint three, Evolène, after nearly four hours. The trio of Cink, Páez León and Swenson remained at the front, with Belgian Wout Alleman (winner of the first round of the 2025 HERO UCI Cross-country Marathon World Cup), Tim Smeenge (NED) and Martin Fanger (SUI) all in close contention.

With around 100km of 125km completed, the American led, recording 5:04:27.0 at checkpoint five (L'A Vieille) from Italy’s Samuele Porro, Páez León, Smeenge and a resurgent Valero Serrano in fifth - with less than a minute covering the top four. With around an hour of racing remaining, they headed towards the highest peak, the Pas de Lona at 2,787m, before the descent to picturesque Grimentz at around 1,600m.

As they passed the final checkpoint at Moiry, Swenson – a multi-disciplinary rider who has been better known for his victories in top-level gravel racing over the last five years – held a 1-minute advantage over Porro, who was nearly 3 minutes ahead of the Colombian Páez León. But with only a minute’s gap to Valero Serrano and Austria’s Hermann Pernsteiner, the podium places were still far from assured…

Swenson held it to the line to win in 6:01:44.3, the leaders averaging 20.7km/h over a punishing course. Porro took the silver medal (+0:25.7) and the 2019 and 2020 UCI World Champion Páez León bronze (+3:42.9), at the age of 43.

Courtney: seven years after XCO rainbow jersey

The women set off at 6.45am, just five minutes behind the men’s pack, with triple UCI Marathon World Champion Mona Mitterwallner (AUT) defending, and favourites including the Netherlands’ Rosa van Doorn, Vera Looser (NAM), Lejla Njemčević (BIH), Mara Fumagalli (ITA), Paula Gorycka-Kurmann (POL), and Adelheid Morath (GER).

After around 90 minutes race time, USA’s Kate Courtney and Anna Weinbeer (SUI) were leading, with a significant gap over the rest of the field – but had they gone too soon?

Through the first time check, Courtney, 2018 UCI XCO World Champion in Lenzerheide, Switzerland, was unveiling an audacious ride to claim her second rainbow jersey in the country, but in a different mountain bike format. She and Weinbeer rode together, with a 30-second gap to the ominously third-placed Mitterwallner, Italy’s Claudia Peretti fourth and Njemčević not far off.

The front three held position through the lowest point of the race, Hérémence, at half distance, with Vera Looser moving up to 10th and Van Doorne up to 12th but both around 15 minutes down on the American.

After more than five hours of racing, passing Eison at around 100km distance, Courtney had an advantage of 3:33. Weinbeer and Mitterwallner had swapped positions, both around three minutes clear of Peretti.

Courtney was the only female rider to hit the sixth checkpoint in under six hours, some 4 minutes clear of the Swiss chaser who was in turn almost 3 minutes clear of the three-time UCI XCM World Champion from Austria.

And with the 2,787m Pas de Lona done, it was an exercise in race management for the 29-year-old from San Francisco. And that’s exactly what she delivered, bringing it home in 7:10:11.1 at an average pace of 17.4km/h.

Weinbeer took the silver medal (+3:44.8), and Mitterwallner bronze (+4:59.1).