The 2026 UCI Mountain Bike Marathon World Championships will take place in Primiero San Martino di Castrozza, Trentino, Italy, across the weekend of 12 and 13 September. The Elite will open proceedings on Saturday, before the amateur riders contest 12 Masters UCI world titles on Sunday.
Cross-country marathon explained
Mountain bike cross-country Marathon, or XCM, is the ultimate test of mountain-biking endurance, contested on courses of between 60km and 160km that feature several thousand metres of climbing. The 2025 UCI Mountain Bike Marathon World Championships in Valais, Switzerland, for instance, racked up 5000 metres of climbing over the 125km course.
This year, both the Men Elite and Women Elite will race on the same course, based on the famous Mythos Primiero Dolomiti route, covering 95km with 4,000m of climbing.
A typical XCM course is designed to test a rider's endurance, technical ability and tactical decision-making. Elite races last between three and seven hours, depending not only on the distance and elevation, but also the terrain and weather. Courses are commonly point-to-point routes or large loops through natural landscapes such as forests, mountains and valleys.
XCM races often take riders over a combination of forest roads, gravel tracks, rocky trails, grass, mud and narrow singletrack. Navigating such courses demands strong bike-handling skills alongside exceptional fitness.
Strategic pacing is key in XCM - to avoid burning too much energy early on and dropping down the pack -, as is a sound nutrition plan. Feed and aid stations allow riders to collect food and drink, with team support permitted in designated areas.
History of the UCI Mountain Bike Marathon World Championships
The first UCI World Champions for XCM were crowned in 2003, at the UCI Mountain Bike and Trials World Championships in Lugano, Switzerland.
On a day of strong winds and on a punishing course, local hero Thomas Frischknecht, already Olympic silver medallist in mountain bike’s cross-country Olympic (XCO) format, won the Men Elite XCM UCI world title, completing the 78km course in 3:48:01. To do so, he outsprinted Dutch rider Bart Brentjens, with Germany's Carsten Bresser coming third. It was the first of two UCI world titles for Frischknecht, who won again in 2005.
The Women Elite riders raced alongside the men, with Poland taking the top two spots through Maja Włoszczowska and Magdalena Sadlecka. Germany's Sandra Klose won bronze. Włoszczowska went on to win two silver medals in XCO at the Olympic Games: in Beijing 2008 and Rio 2016.
Following the success of that first edition, the UCI Mountain Bike Marathon World Championships became a standalone event in 2004. They have kept that format almost every year since, the exceptions being 2023, when they joined the inaugural UCI Cycling World Championships held in Glasgow and across Scotland (United Kingdom), and 2025, when they were part of the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Valais.
No nation has won more Elite titles than Switzerland, whose riders have celebrated 10 victories across the men’s and women's races since 2003. Austria, Norway and Denmark follow on six titles apiece.
Among individual riders, Gunn-Rita Dahle Flesjå of Norway holds the record for the most women's XCM UCI world titles, with six victories between 2004 and 2015.
Among the men, Switzerland's Christoph Sauser and Austria's Alban Lakata share the record, with three titles each. Sauser won in 2007, 2011 and 2013, Lakata in 2010, 2015 and 2017.
The UCI Mountain Bike Marathon World Championships have also increasingly attracted riders who shine across multiple disciplines and mountain bike formats. In 2022 for example, French athlete Pauline Ferrand-Prévot became the first rider to win UCI world titles in XCO, cross-country short track (XCC) and XCM the same year. She has also been crowned UCI World Champion in the road race, cyclo-cross and gravel.
The Masters riders
XCM draws strong global participation from amateur riders who, this year for the first time, will compete for the rainbow jersey on the same weekend and at the same venue as the Elite. From 2029, this pairing – the UCI Mountain Bike Elite & Masters Marathon World Championships - is set to become a permanent fixture, giving amateur riders a regular place on the mountain bike format’s biggest stage.