The unreleased tech Canadians rode to worlds wins and podiums

World championships is always an event where new bike tech brakes cover, as brands and riders push for every advantage to deliver winning rides and bring home the rainbow jersey. At 2025 worlds, a lot of that new gear was found on the bikes Canadian athletes rode to wins and podiums in Valais, Switzerland.

Here’s a look at the new, unreleased, and winning tech from 2025 mountain bike world championships, from Canadians and the team pits beyond.

Polymer spokes take over – and take wins

Several Canadian riders found speed in Switzerland by ditching conventional wheel design. Isabella Holmgren won the under-23 XCC and XCO, Cole Punchard won under-23 XCC and XCO medals, and Ava Holmgren made a staggering number of passes to ride into the under-23 women’s XCO top 10, all on new polymer spokes. While not unreleased, the flexible “rope” spokes are also not offered by any of those teams sponsors.

Testing the wild polymer spokes that won Tom Pidcock and Pauline Ferrand-Prevot the Olympic Games

Berd’s Dyneema Polylight spokes first broke the non-metal spokes onto the international scene with wins from Tom Pidcock and Pauline Ferrand-Prevot at the Olympic Games in Paris and, under Alan Hatherly, a 2024 world championships XCO title and another Olympic medal in Paris (bronze). That success seems to have attracted a fair bit of attention, with more teams adopting the non-traditional construction in Switzerland this year.

The Holmgrens and their Trek Factory Racing teammates all rode Bontrager Kovee RSL wheels laced with polymer spokes that, while the branding is not confirmed, looked a lot like Berd’s Polylight. The Kovee RSL already have a staggering sub 1,200 gram weight which the Berd’s would shave a few more grams off of. This is not an option offered by Bontrager. Trek is also one of a very few teams fielding a full fleet of the pricey, and labour-intensive, polymer spoke wheels.

Cole Punchard also had some form of non-metal spokes on his custom Canadiana Lab71 Scalpel from Cannondale Factory Racing. With CFR already having worlds and Olympic success on the Berd spokes last year with Alan Hatherly (now on Giant Factory Racing), it’s not surprising that more Cannondale racers were spotted with the special spokes attached to their FSA rims this year. Punchard used them to earn a pair of under-23 medals, in XCC…