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.
Cink had moved into the race lead by the time they reached the second checkpoint; however, by the third checkpoint, it was Swenson who led the race.
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.
In the elite women's race, Courtney secured the gold medal ahead of Switzerland's Anna Weinbeer and Austria's three-time former winner Mona Mitterwallner.
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.
Courtney built an advantage of more than three minutes ahead of Weinbeer by the the the race hit Eison at around 100km, all but sealing gold.
Meanwhile, Weinbeer slowed, and Mitterwallner passed her in pursuit of the silver medal. The pair continued to swap places, with Weinbeer gaining the upper hand in the last section of the race.
Courtney crossed the line with a winning time of 7:10:11.1, and her second career world title in the off-road discipline. Weinbeer took the silver medal at 3:44 back, and Mitterwallner bronze at 4:59 back.
