Following a memorable final round of the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series in Lake Placid, United States, Sweden’s Jenny Rissveds and France’s Luca Martin have claimed the 2026 UCI Cross-country Olympic (XCO) World Cup overall titles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Martin also took the UCI Cross-country Short Track (XCC) World Cup overall title, with Switzerland’s Sina Frei claiming the equivalent in the Women Elite. Asa Vermette of the USA and Austria’s Valentina H\u00f6ll, secured the UCI Downhill (DHI) World Cup overall titles. The UCI Enduro (EDR) World Cup overall titles had already been decided in Morillon in August, where France’s Adrien Dailly and Great Britain’s Ella Conolly came out on top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Women Elite XCO: Frei wins the battle, Rissveds wins the war<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Swiss Sina Frei took victory in a dramatic two-up sprint with Italy\u2019s Martina Berta. The world-class pair battled head-to-head in a thrilling finish, with Frei edging ahead at the line to claim victory. New Zealand\u2019s Samara Maxwell completed the top three. The win capped an exceptional season for Frei, who added the Lake Placid victory to UCI World Cup wins at Mona YongPyong and Les Gets, while also claiming both the XCO and Cross-country Short Track (XCC) European titles and her first Elite UCI XCO World Championship title at Val di Sole, Italy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n She missed out on the 2026 XCO overall title, however, as Rissveds, who entered the Lake Placid finale with a 220-point advantage over Frei, successfully maintained her lead over her rival. The 32-year-old finished 11th on the day, more than two minutes behind the winner, but that was enough to not only claim her first UCI XCO World Cup overall title but also become the first Swedish rider to do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s really nice [to win the series],\u201d Rissveds said after the race. \u201cThe level is incredibly high at the moment and, compared to last year, it\u2019s much faster. The racing is a lot tighter. The other teams have done their homework over the winter, and that\u2019s what we have to do to keep up with them in the coming years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rissveds\u2019 season was characterised by a remarkable consistency and, of course, speed, particularly through the middle part of the campaign. She won rounds three, four and six in Austria, Switzerland and Andorra respectively, as well as finishing second in South Korea, Czechia and France.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Women Elite XCC: Frei claims the crown<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Frei\u2019s Lake Placid XCO victory was her second success of the weekend: on Friday, she secured the UCI XCC World Cup overall title by finishing third in a race won by Italy\u2019s Martina Berta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Frei won the UCI XCC World Cup overall title by 60 points, her three round wins giving her the edge over Rissveds\u2019 two. Berta was the breakthrough performer, winning the last two rounds at Soldier Hollow and Lake Placid to finish third overall, while the Netherlands\u2019 Puck Pieterse and America\u2019s Savilia Blunk also claimed round wins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Men Elite XCO: a \u201creally special\u201d overall title for Martin<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Great Britain\u2019s Charlie Aldridge delivered one of the most memorable moments of the Lake Placid weekend by winning the Men Elite XCO race in a tight sprint against Switzerland\u2019s Filippo Colombo. Chile\u2019s Mart\u00edn Vidaurre Kossmann finished third, just one second behind the leaders, while Luca Martin crossed the line fifth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite not winning in Lake Placid, the 24-year-old Frenchman had produced the most consistent campaign in the Men\u2019s field, recording five consecutive podium finishes during the season, including two victories. By the time the series reached America, Martin had established a substantial lead, with countryman Adrien Boichis\u2019 absence from the closing rounds (to focus on road racing) helping to secure the overall title before the final race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTaking the overall is really special,\u201d said Martin, whose team Cannondale Factory Racing, is set to disband at the end of the season. \u201cIt\u2019s the last day for this team and we finished on such a high. Having three riders in the top five [Aldridge, Cole Punchard in fourth and Martin himself] shows what a great day it was for us. It was pretty tough for me, but I\u2019m really happy with the way it ended.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Men Elite XCC: Martin takes the double<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Martin\u2019s title caps an outstanding season, adding the UCI XCO overall crown to the XCC overall victory that he secured at Lake Placid on Friday, despite Chile\u2019s Mart\u00edn Vidaurre Kossmann taking the round win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Remarkably, he did so without winning a single XCC round. France\u2019s Mathis Azzaro opened the season with victories at Mona YongPyong and Nov\u00e9 M\u011bsto na Morav\u011b, while Boichis won three rounds, in Lenzerheide, La Thuile and Les Gets, before stepping away from the series. That left Azzaro as Martin’s closest challenger until he withdrew from Lake Placid. With Denmark’s Simon Andreassen, the USA’s Bjorn Riley and New Zealand’s Sam Gaze taking wins, it was Martin’s consistency that made the difference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Men Elite DHI: Vermette makes history<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Lake Placid delivered a dramatic finale to the 2026 UCI Downhill World Cup season. Australia\u2019s Luke Meier-Smith won the Men Elite race, but it was home rider Asa Vermette who claimed the bigger prize, sealing the overall title to the delight of the American crowd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meier-Smith, who won in Lake Placid 12 months earlier, produced a winning time of 3:08.38 to beat Austria\u2019s Andreas Kolb by 1.3 seconds, with New Zealand\u2019s Lachlan Stevens-McNab third. For Meier-Smith, it was just his second UCI World Cup victory and a welcome return to form after a tricky season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As for the overall title, Vermette arrived at Lake Placid with a 96-point lead over Great Britain\u2019s Jordan Williams, while France\u2019s Amaury Pierron remained an outside contender. Pierron\u2019s hopes for the title vanished when he failed to qualify for the final, leaving Vermette and Williams to decide the overall series winner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the final, Williams finished sixth and Vermette eighth, but that was enough for the American rookie to secure the title with 1,442 points, 66 clear of Williams. At just 19 years old, Vermette became only the second rider to win the Men Elite overall title in his debut Elite season, following in the footsteps of France’s Nicolas Vouilloz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s insane,\u201d Vermette said after the race. \u201cI dreamed of it at the beginning of the season, so for it to happen is crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Women Elite DHI: Bouladou\u2019s debut win but H\u00f6ll on top<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In the Women Elite DHI competition, Austria\u2019s Valentina H\u00f6ll had already wrapped up the overall title with two rounds to spare after a dominant season; in fact, the 24-year-old had essentially won the series during the opening half of the competition after winning five of the first six rounds of the UCI World Cup, including victories in Mona YongPyong, Loudenvielle, Leogang, La Thuile and Pal Arinsal. This was further cemented by her win in Whistler.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But it was France\u2019s Lisa Bouladou who took the honours in Lake Placid, claiming her maiden UCI World Cup victory in 3:36.03. She beat H\u00f6ll by 0.463 seconds, denying the Austrian a seventh win of the season which would have equalled the record held by France\u2019s Anne-Caroline Chausson and Great Britain\u2019s Rachel Atherton. But H\u00f6ll remained content with her remarkable 2026: \u201cI\u2019m happy with my season. It\u2019s pretty insane to get these results.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n U23 and Juniors: Corvi and Schel dominate<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Lake Placid also wrapped up several younger-category titles. Italy\u2019s Valentina Corvi and Germany\u2019s Paul Schehl were crowned the UCI U23 XCO overall winners, while the U23 XCC titles had already been secured earlier in the season, also by Corvi and Schehl. Despite this dominance, Lake Placid produced maiden UCI XCC World Cup wins for Great Britain\u2019s Bethany-Ann Jackson and France\u2019s Alix Andr\u00e9 Gallis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In downhill, New Zealand\u2019s Jonty Williamson and the USA\u2019s Aletha Ostgaard had already clinched the junior overall titles before Lake Placid. The final junior races were won by Canada\u2019s Ryder Wilson and Australia\u2019s Tilly Boadle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Men Elite EDR: Dailly\u2019s high drama<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In mid-August, France’s Adrien Dailly snatched the UCI Enduro World Cup Men Elite overall title in dramatic fashion at the season finale in Morillon, Haute-Savoie (France), which brought the curtain down on the series in its current format.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 30-year-old arrived at the final stop of the six-round series second in the standings, 82 points behind Canada\u2019s Lief Rodgers, before unleashing a memorable effort to claim his first UCI Enduro World Cup race victory and, in the process, overturn the points deficit to Rodgers. Rodgers finished runner-up overall, with Australia\u2019s Ryan Gilchrist third.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Incredibly, across the six rounds, the series produced six different race winners: Alex Rudeau at Loudenvielle, S\u0142awomir \u0141ukasik at Leogang, Tristan Botteram at Val di Fassa, Rapha\u00ebl Giambi at La Thuile, Ryan Gilchrist at Aletsch Arena-Bellwald and Dailly at Morillon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Women Elite EDR: back-to-back for Conolly<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n For the Women Elite, Great Britain\u2019s Ella Conolly successfully defended her 2025 crown to become the 2026 UCI Enduro World Cup Women Elite Overall Winner, after another remarkably consistent season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The 28-year-old from the Scottish Highlands won the opening round at Loudenvielle, finished second at Leogang and Val di Fassa, then added victories at La Thuile and Aletsch Arena-Bellwald. That platform of consistency gave her a decisive cushion heading into Morillon, where she finished fifth to secure the overall title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n France\u2019s M\u00e9lanie Pugin proved Conolly\u2019s main challenger throughout the season, winning Val di Fassa and finishing second at Loudenvielle and La Thuile, while New Zealand\u2019s Winnifred Goldsbury added a breakthrough win to her palmar\u00e8s at Leogang before France\u2019s Morgane Charre closed the season with victory at Morillon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Following a memorable final round of the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series in Lake Placid, United States,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16394,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[280,98],"class_list":["post-16393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-newsbeat","tag-cross-country","tag-cycling"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t