Germany’s Andreas Seewald and Switzerland’s Anna Weinbeer are the winners of the 2026 UCI Mountain Bike Marathon (XCM) World Championships raced in Primiero San Martino di Castrozza, Trentino, Italy. Both riders unleashed memorable performances on a demanding 95km course that featured around 4,000m of climbing.
Men Elite: Seewald shifts into gear
Much of the talk before the race focused on Spain's David Valero Serrano. The 38-year-old lined up as the leader of the HERO UCI Cross-country Marathon World Cup standings, having won two rounds of the series, in Italy and Andorra, and dominated the UEC XCM European Championships on home soil.
This, though, was not to be his day. He suffered a flat on the very first climb and, forced to fix it himself, lost significant time; once he was back on track, his chances were practically over.
While Valero Serrano gave chase, a large group formed at the front, including defending UCI World Champion Keegan Swenson (USA), Jordan Sarrou (FRA), Martin Fanger (SUI) and Seewald.
What proved to be Seewald's race-winning move came on the climb to Forcella Calaita, around 42km in and at just over 1,600m above sea level. The 35-year-old attacked, immediately opening a gap to the chasing group containing Swenson, Sarrou, Tristan Nortje (RSA) and Wout Alleman (BEL), along with Italians Diego Rosa, Jakob Dorigoni and Gioele De Cosmo.
Could anyone in the chase group reel Seewald in? On paper, the likeliest candidate was Alleman, second in the HERO UCI Cross-country Marathon World Cup standings and enjoying a solid 2026, marked by wins at the HERO Costa Blanca and the Black Forest ULTRA Bike Marathon, as well as a fifth Belgian XCM title.
Alleman, though, like the rest of the field, had no answer to Seewald, who crossed the Fiera di Primiero finish line in 4:33:47 to claim the UCI Mountain Bike Marathon World Championships victory for the second time, after his maiden win in Capoliveri, Elba Island (Italy), in 2021.
Behind Seewald, the Italians delighted the home crowd, as De Cosmo (4:36:59) beat Dorigoni (4:37:00) to silver by a single second. Diego Rosa and Davide Foccoli rounded out the top five.
Women Elite: Weinbeer imperious
Swiss rider Anna Weinbeer went into the race as the heavy favourite, having won four of the five rounds of the HERO UCI Cross-country Marathon World Cup, enough to secure the series title with the final round still to come at Sea Otter Europe in Girona (Spain) next weekend. She had also won the UEC XCM European Championships.
Last year, she took silver at the UCI Mountain Bike Marathon World Championships, behind Kate Courtney (USA). Courtney's absence this year, having turned her attention to the road for 2026, created an opening that Weinbeer took with both hands. By the first feed zone at San Martino di Castrozza, her advantage stood at around three minutes.
Her lead already looked commanding, although a resurgence from the strong chase group could not be discounted. That group comprised Mona Mitterwallner (AUT), Savilia Blunk (USA), Giada Specia (ITA), Larissa Hartog (NED) and home favourite Claudia Peretti, who arrived in fine form after her recent Swiss Epic success.
Weinbeer still had more than 70km to the finish but stuck firmly to her solo strategy. By the time the race wound through Fiera di Primiero at around the 67km mark, the chase group had been whittled down to just Peretti and Mitterwallner, who had cut Weinbeer's advantage to around two minutes.
Up ahead, despite the chasers closing in, Weinbeer remained composed. As Fiera di Primiero edged closer, the Swiss rider's victory looked assured. The real fight was now behind her, for silver, between Peretti and Mitterwallner.
The answer came soon enough: a change of pace from the Italian, and a mechanical for the Austrian, left Peretti clear in second.
Weinbeer stopped the clock at 5:30:54 to take the rainbow jersey, just under four minutes clear of Peretti (5:34:47). Mitterwallner took bronze in 5:39:13, with Americans Melisa Rollins and Blunk fourth and fifth respectively.
Weinbeer made the victory look easy, but on Instagram she reflected that the road there had been anything but: “Behind this one day are so many days that no one ever saw. Training sessions where everything felt easy – and just as many where nothing seemed to work. Doubts. Fatigue. Setbacks. Small steps forward. People who believed in me, sometimes more than I believed in myself. “I tried not to think about what might be waiting at the end. Just to stay in the moment. To fight when it hurt. To trust when things got hard. And to keep going, again and again. Until suddenly, I knew – it was enough. I did it.
“I may get to wear these rainbow stripes for a year but this title will never be mine alone. It belongs to the people who walked this road with me. The ones who picked me up, pushed me, stood by me and kept reminding me why I do all of this. World Champion. I think it’s going to take a little while before I truly understand that.”
A historic Masters competition
For the first time, the UCI Mountain Bike Marathon Masters World Championships took place at the same venue, the same weekend as the Elite races. Like the Elite, the amateurs started in Fiera di Primiero, took in Forcella Calaita, Bedolé and Civertaghe, and finished back in Fiera di Primiero. In all, they faced around 82km with 3,500m of climbing.
A competitive and exhilarating day’s racing saw rainbow jerseys awarded to the following in the men’s categories: Sascha Starker (GER), M2; Joris Massaer (GER), M3; Andrea Marcello (ITA), M5; Luca Chiodi (ITA), M6; Maurizio Tarquinio Solagna (ITA), M7; Matthias Ball (GER), M8; Marcello Bartolozzi (ITA), M9.
In the women’s categories, rainbow jerseys were awarded to Bianca Morvillo (ITA), W2; Sophie Johnson (GBR), W3; Karin Tosato (ITA), W4; Trish Thomas (USA), W5; Birgitt Wittmann (GER), W6; Camilla Bertossi (ITA), W7.