UCI Snow Bike World Championships: Baumann, Tupin and Grisel victorious

Baumann double UCI World Champion

The second edition of the UCI Snow Bike World Championships in the French resort of Châtel, Haute-Savoie, saw Switzerland’s Lisa Baumann take victory in both the Super-G and dual slalom. In the men’s competition, victories went to Frenchmen Vincent Tupin in the Super-G and Léo Grisel in the dual slalom.

Super-G Women: Baumann blasts it!

The Super-G – inspired by, and closely based on the alpine skiing event – was the morning event, on a 1957 metre course dropping 600 metres. Riders had one run each.

First of the 13 women down the fast slope, France’s 2024 UCI World Champion Morgane Such set a time of 2:14.09, which was immediately bettered by Baumann (2:07.29), with Italy’s Veronika Widmann (last year’s silver medalist) slotting into third.

Who could topple the 2024 dual slalom gold medalist Baumann from the Super-G hot seat? The French contingent was up for the fight… but could not dislodge the Swiss athlete.

Vicky Clavel and Zoé Fayolle overtook Such and Widmann to take the silver and bronze medals respectively behind Baumann. Such finished just off the podium, with Widmann in fifth position.

Super-G Men: Tupin heads French clean-sweep

The first man down the hill was double defending UCI World Champion Pierre Thévenard, putting in the powerful early pedal strokes to deliver a blistering run of 1:47.930 on his home track.

2024 silver medalist Vincent Tupin immediately followed. His slight disadvantage at the first checkpoint turned into a 0.8 sec advantage at checkpoint 2, and his finish time of 1:45.54 was an impressive 2.39 seconds faster than his countryman.

With 2024 bronze medalist Henry Kerr (IRL) a non-starter, it was over to the remaining 43 riders to prove themselves.

The charismatic downhill veteran Cédric Gracia delivered a super run (+5.72) for provisional third position, setting up a potential French 1-2-3. And thus it remained, with France celebrating a clean sweep of Tupin, Thévenard and Gracia.

Women dual slalom: Baumann completes the double!

Starting in the early evening, the 510-metre elimination-style dual slalom course featured a 155-metre drop, and 13 gates. The morning’s Super-G top three – Baumann, Clavel and Fayolle – were among the athletes who went safely through the 1/8 finals.

In the 1/4 finals, defending dual slalom UCI World Champion Baumann and 2024 Super-G UCI World Champion Such looked dominant. Another French rider, Julie Darnat, beat Clavel, and Fayolle also went through to make three French women in the semi-finals.

The semi-finals saw Baumann overpower Such and Fayolle get the better of Darnat.

After 2024 silver medalist Such won the small final to claim the bronze medal, Baumann won the main final to claim her second rainbow jersey of the day.

Men dual slalom: Grisel leads French 1-2-3

The men’s 1/16 finals were a straight-up one-run elimination. Then from the ⅛ finals, each rider had two runs head-to-head (one on each side of the course).

2024 UCI World Champion Thévenard and fellow Frenchmen Tupin, Léo Grisel, Kevyn Mayeur and Baptiste Pierron all progressed through the 1/8 finals, along with Julian Steiner (GER) and British athletes Luca Thurlow and Jack Piercy.

Tupin, Grisel, Mayeur and Thévenard progressed through the quarters to set up an all-French semi-final, where Grisel and Thévenard went through to the main final.

After 2024 silver medalist Tupin won the small final to claim the 2025 bronze medal, Grisel overturned a 0.5-sec deficit to crash through the final gate and win by 0.12 sec. The 23-year-old took the gold medal and the rainbow jersey, securing a clean sweep for France in the second men’s podium of the day!