2026 Mountain Bike World Championships | This course and schedule await Mathieu van der Poel and Tom Pidcock

It's the Mountain Bike World Championships are taking place this week in Val di Sole, Italy. The eyes of the road cycling world are naturally on Tom Pidcock, Mathieu van der Poel, and Puck Pieterse. Van der Poel will be competing for the world title on Sunday after strong second place in Les Gets. IDL Pro Cycling has put together a rundown of what you can expect this week in terms of the course and schedule.

The Mountain Bike World Championships in Val di Sole will take place from Wednesday, August 26, through Sunday, August 30. The event kicks off on Wednesday with the Mixed Relay. On Thursday, August 27, it’s time for the XCC races in the junior category, as well as the short races for U23 and elite riders. Puck Pieterse will be competing in those races, but Van der Poel will not.

We’ll wrap up on Sunday with the Cross Country races, which is also an Olympic discipline. Pieterse and her teammates will be up first at 1:00 p.m., after the U23 riders have completed their races in the morning. At 3:15 p.m., Van der Poel vs Pidcock (and the rest of the MTB field) will then close the week of mountain bike racing.

"It's always an exciting race in a beautiful location with a classic and fair course," said Dutch national coach Gerben de Knegt when announcing his roster. “Puck and Mathieu have both won a World Cup race there before, so they might just pull off a surprise,” said the head coach of the Dutch national team in the run-up to the World Championships.

A natural course of about 4 kilometers, with an elevation gain of 190 meters, will challenge the participants. The course climbs almost immediately from the start, but it is characterized by relatively short climbs—unlike last year, when the race in Crans-Montana was decided primarily by a single long climb right from the start. Tree roots and loose boulders could cause the pace to slow down even further.

Val di Sole features several technical sections, such as rock gardens and short switchbacks, where there is little room for a real recovery. For Van der Poel—who will start from the fifth row—it’s important to pace himself well: he naturally wants to move up to the front quickly, but he also has to be careful not to burn out during the tricky opening phase of the race.

Results will be updated daily as the racing finishes.

5:00 p.m. | Mixed Team Relay
🥇
🥈
🥉

9:30 a.m. | Junior Women's Cross-Country
🥇
🥈
🥉

11:15 a.m. | Junior Men's Cross-Country
🥇
🥈
🥉

3:30 p.m. | Women's U23 Short Race
🥇
🥈
🥉

4:30 p.m. | Men's U23 Short Race
🥇
🥈
🥉

5:45 p.m. | Elite Women's Short Race
🥇
🥈
🥉

6:30 p.m. | Men's Elite Short Race
🥇
🥈
🥉

9:00 a.m. | Women's U23 Cross-Country
🥇
🥈
🥉

11:00 a.m. | Men's U23 Cross-Country
🥇
🥈
🥉

1:00 p.m. | Women's Elite Cross-Country
🥇
🥈
🥉

3:15 p.m. | Men's Elite Cross-Country
🥇
🥈
🥉