Preview World Mountain Bike Championships - elite men 2025 | This might be the perfect year for Mathieu van der Poel...

Looking at the list of Cross Country mountain biking champions, one name stands out: Nino Schurter, the GOAT of mountain biking. The Swiss rider will compete in one more World Championship in Crans Montana in front of his home crowd before hanging up his bike for good in Lenzerheide in a few weeks.

In the last two seasons, the victory did not go to Schurter. In 2023, Tom Pidcock won the World Championships. Still, the Briton—widely regarded as the best mountain biker of the moment—is currently competing in the Vuelta. Last year, victory went to South African Alan Hatherly, who made the switch to the WorldTour road team Jayco AlUla in the winter.

2024 Alan Hatherly
2023 Tom Pidcock
2022 Nino Schurter
2021 Nino Schurter
2020 Jordan Sarrou
2019 Nino Schurter
2018 Nino Schurter
2017 Nino Schurter
2016 Nino Schurter
2015 Nino Schurter

This year's World Mountain Bike Championships will be held in the Swiss region of Valais, where the various disciplines have been assigned to different locations. For example, the Short Race took place last Tuesday in Zermatt, near the Matterhorn. The ski resort of Crans Montana has been designated as the venue for the highlight of the tournament, the Cross Country races.

Last year, a World Cup was already held in Crans Montana, where the organisers managed to design a challenging circuit. The course includes a long climb, but there are also several technical passages, such as a so-called rock garden. This has been slightly modified compared to last season's World Cup to reduce the risk of crashes. Tom Pidcock won the previous year, but will not be participating this year due to the Vuelta.

The races will take place on a 3.8-kilometer course, with an elevation gain of 160 meters per lap. Dutch national coach Gerben de Knegt is already enthusiastic about the circuit. “It's a fair course where the strongest rider always emerges on top. The combination of altitude, climbing, and technique makes this World Championship tough, but beautiful,” said the Dutchman.

Former Olympic and world champion Jolanda Neff has already scouted the course on behalf of the organization, as can be seen in the video below. “The start will be in the center of Crans Montana,” she begins her story. This starting section is quite wide, which means that riders in the middle rows have a chance to move up.

“Then we turn left and start climbing. These are technical climbs with high gradients. So you need power to get up there, and it feels like you're running unnecessarily,” says the Swiss rider. “The climb continues until the timber garden, which is, of course, made entirely of wood. That's a tricky section, with four different lines. If you don't like the wood, you take the outside, but then you're slower. The wood is for the experts.”

“After the timber garden, there is a long off-camber section to the main road in Crans Montana, where we start the second climb. This one is also long and tough: it continues to Lac de Chermigon, right at the top of the hill. At that point, you have a spectacular view of the mountains, but we won't have time for that during the races.”

"We are then at the highest point of the race, so we descend with a few jumps and the famous rock garden. This will be an important sector, because your heart rate will be at its maximum after the long, tough climb. Before you know it, you'll have to navigate the rock garden. The waterfall section follows this, the last crucial part. Very steep, fast, and technical, with an A and B line that are both very difficult. The B line is normally slower, after which we descend at high speed to the finish, where the best will surely win."

Times
Start: hour
Finish: hour

From a Dutch perspective, all eyes are naturally focused on Mathieu van der Poel. The Dutchman from Alpecin-Deceuninck has only ridden two races on his mountain bike this season. In Nove Mesto, he dropped out with a minor injury, but his performance in Les Gets two weeks ago offers perspective. Van der Poel, who will start from row four, finished an impressive sixth there and said afterwards that there is more to come.

If there is one year in which it should be possible, it is this season. The World Championships promise to be a very open contest, and there is simply no clear favorite. Tom Pidcock, for example, will not be present, while defending champion Alan Hatherly from South Africa remains to be seen how he has coped with his switch to road cycling.

This season, there is no clear pattern to be found. American Christopher Blevins got off to a flying start and seemed to be emerging as the man to beat in Crans Montana, until he hit a slump in the summer. At the World Championships Short Race, the 27-year-old rider was suddenly back on form with a second place.

The same goes for Victor Koretzky, who won the Short Race. We have hardly seen him in recent weeks either. The opposite was true for his compatriots, Mathias Azzaro (bronze in the Short Race) and Luca Martin. The latter rode his way into the spotlight with a victory in Les Gets, but then had to miss the World Short Race Championships due to a COVID-19 infection.

Martin's teammate, Charlie Aldridge, who finished second in the European Championships and won the Short Race in Les Gets, suffered the same fate and is also not yet entirely sure of competing for the title on Sunday. Simon Andreassen from Denmark, on the other hand, is in good form with a fourth place on Tuesday and a third place in the European Championships.

Fifth in the Short Race was Sam Gaze, who, riding for Alpecin-Deceuninck and New Zealand, is also capable of doing crazy things. The same goes for the home riders from Switzerland, with Mathias Flückiger, Nino Schurter, Fabio Püntener, and Filippo Colombo. These riders can peak like no other, and that's not even taking into account the home advantage.

The Italians are also not far from home, so Luca Braidot and Simone Avendetto can expect the necessary support. Meanwhile, Germany's Luca Schwarzbauer has had his sights set on this World Championship for a long time. Further from home is Chile's Martin Vidaurre, winner this season in Val di Sole. Finally, we can look forward to seeing veteran Ondrej Cink (Czech Republic) and Belgian Jens Schuermans, who finished tenth in the Short Race on Tuesday.

Top favorites: Christopher Blevins (United States) and Mathieu van der Poel (Netherlands)
Outsiders: Victor Koretzky, Luca Martin (France), Charlie Aldridge (Great Britain) and Mathias Flückiger (Switzerland)
Long shots: Mathis Azzaro (France), Sam Gaze (New Zealand), Alan Hatherly (South Africa), Luca Braidot, Simone Avendetto (Italy), Simon Andreassen (Denmark), Martin Vidaurre (Chile), Filippo Colombo, Nino Schurter (Switzerland) and Luca Schwarzbauer (Germany)

The Mountain Bike World Championships can be followed live this weekend via the online channels of NOS and Eurosport/HBO Max. Both broadcasters are giving preference on their TV channels to the opening weekend of the World Athletics Championships, which are being held in Tokyo.