The 2025 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships have kicked off with a bang for Team USA, with Kate Courtney and Keegan Swenson claiming victories in the elite women’s and elite men’s cross-country marathon events, respectively, on Saturday in the Valais, Switzerland.
The 125km race was held from Verbier to Grimentz, following a route through the Val d’Anniviers valley, with the highest peak, the Pas de Lona at 2,787m, in the last part of the race.
In the elite men’s race, Spain’s David Valero Serrano took the early lead at the first time check, followed by two Swiss athletes, Dario Lillo and Alexandre Balmer. Swenson was positioned further back in fifth with Czechia’s Ondřej Cink, Germany’s Andreas Seewald, and Colombia’s Héctor Leonardo Páez León in the mix.
As they passed the final checkpoint, Swenson held a one-minute advantage over Italy’s Samuele Porro, who was nearly three minutes ahead of Páez León.
Swenson crossed the line with the winning time of 6:01:44.3, with Porro taking the silver medal at 25 seconds back, and the bronze medal going to Páez León at 3:42 back.
After the first 90 minutes of racing, Courtney and Weinbeer held a significant gap over their rivals, Mitterwallner, Netherlands’ Rosa van Doorn, Namibia’s Vera Looser, Bosnia’s Lejla Njemčević, Italy’s Mara Fumagalli, Poland’s Paula Gorycka-Kurmann, and Germany’s Adelheid Morath.
Results
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