The WHOOP 2025 UCI Mountain Bike World Series reaches a fascinating point after the seventh rounds for cross-country Olympic (XCO), cross-country short track (XCC) and downhill (DHI) at the weekend. The action took place in Les Gets, France, ahead of the 2025 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Valais, Switzerland. With three UCI World Cup rounds remaining, some categories have already witnessed dominant individuals, while others remain tantalisingly close.
Women Elite XC: Rissveds on the way up
European Champion Jenny Rissveds backed up Friday’s XCC race win with victory in Sunday’s XCO, leading from start to finish. After winning the round two XCO race in Brazil – where she had been crowned 2016 Olympic Champion – the Swede has looked strong all year, also putting herself on the podium in round six (Pal-Arinsal, Andorra), before her double in Les Gets.
Rissveds has seen the sport’s highs and lows. After taking a break from top level competition in 2017-2018 for mental health reasons, the 31-year-old has won UCI World Cup races in either XCC or XCO – or both – every year since. And 2025 is one of her strongest, arriving at Les Gets third in the UCI XCO World Cup overall standings and leaving in second position.
In Sunday’s XCO race, Alessandra Keller fought to take second from Samara Maxwell whose third place is the flying Kiwi’s lowest position so far in 2025! Rissveds and Keller leapfrogged Nicole Koller (SUI) in the overall standings, but Maxwell’s advantage is huge with three rounds remaining.
It was the same top-three in Friday’s XCC. But with fifth place Great Britain’s Evie Richards maintains top spot overall – a position she claimed after winning the two opening rounds, swapped with Puck Pieterse (NED) mid-season, but now holds with a slim advantage over Keller.
Men Elite XC: two first-time winners
After his Pal-Arinsal XCO podium mid-July, Great Britain’s Charlie Aldridge took his maiden XCC win on Friday in Les Gets. It puts him second overall behind Christopher Blevins (USA), who has the title sewn up with 1522 points after winning the first five rounds. The 24-year-old Briton leapfrogged Frenchmen Victor Koretzky (who did not start) and Luca Martin, Aldridge’s Cannondale teammate and the only other Men Elite UCI XCC World Cup winner this season. Martin was second and Italy’s Luca Braidot took third in the exciting XCC battle in Les Gets.
The two Lucas – Martin and Braidot – carried their form over to Sunday’s XCO race, finishing 1st and 2nd ahead of Mathias Flückiger (SUI), Alan Hatherly (RSA) and Simone Avondetto (ITA), while Mathieu Van der Poel’s return to XCO saw the Dutchman finish sixth.
The Under-23 2024 UCI World Champion Martin is impressing in his first season in the Elite ranks and is growing as the Series unfolds, backing up his first Elite podium – second place behind Tom Pidcock in Andorra – with his first Elite victory in Les Gets. He won solo,12 seconds clear, in the National Champion’s jersey in front of his home crowd.
With two XCO wins this season (and 12th in Les Gets) Blevins holds the overall lead with 1506 points. Val di Sole – Trentino (Italy) winner Martín Vidaurre is second overall, with Martin now 35 points behind the Chilean.
Under 23 XC: Corvi and Treudler win again
Italy’s Valentina Corvi won the Under 23 XCO race in Les Gets by almost a minute. With her third successive victory she tops the overall table from Canada’s Ella MacPhee, despite missing two rounds.
USA’s Vida Lopez won round seven’s XCC – the campaign’s sixth different winner. Austria’s Katharina Sadnik leads the overall from MacPhee and Corvi.
Switzerland’s Finn Treudler won the Men Under 23 XCO for the fifth time this year to extend his overall lead to more than 350 points. He also took his fourth victory of the season in the XCC, where he now leads the overall by more than 150 points.
Women Elite DHI: third win for Hemstreet
Canada’s Gracey Hemstreet skipped through the French mud to seal her third victory of 2025, ahead of Marine Cabirou (FRA) and UCI World Champion Valentina Höll; the Austrian having scored consistently all year but yet to take a UCI World Cup win.
Hemstreet, 20, is now on Höll’s tail in the overall, leapfrogging Tahnée Seagrave, who loses some momentum with 6th place in Les Gets after wins in Bielsko-Biała, Poland, and Pal-Arinsal.
Men Elite DHI: Irish victory on French soil
Ronan Dunne took his second Elite UCI DHI World Cup win of the season, beating Belgium’s Martin Maes and Austria’s Andreas Kolb into second and third, almost 3 seconds back from the Irishman.
Loïc Bruni’s 5th place puts him just 25 points behind Canada’s Jackson Goldstone (12th in Les Gets) in the UCI World Cup overall standings, with his fellow Frenchman Loris Vergier a distant third.
Junior DHI: third wins for Zierl and Alran
Austrian Rosa Zierl took her third Women Junior win of the season after her closest challenger Aletha Ostgaard (USA) left the course. Zierl leads overall with the title still in the balance and a home race (in Lake Placid Olympic Region – New York) awaiting Ostgaard.
France’s Max Alran took his third win of the campaign, four seconds quicker than UCI World Champion Asa Vermette. The American, fourth overall, is still searching for his first 2025 UCI World Cup win.