Mountain Bike Worlds Kick Off in Val di Sole: Pidcock, Van der Poel Headline as Women's Elite Race Looms
The 2026 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships are under way in Val di Sole, Italy, running from 26 to 30 August across five disciplines in the Trentino mountains. The programme covers the full spread of competitive mountain biking: XCO (cross-country Olympic — a mass-start race over a short, technical loop), XCR (cross-country relay), XCC (cross-country short track), E-MTB (electric mountain bike), and DHI (downhill) UCI.
Thursday 27 August brings the Junior XCO races, with the Elite and Under-23 cross-country events closing out the championship programme. The Women's Elite XCO race is scheduled to start at 18:20 CEST UCI Race Hub. Live and near-live coverage is available worldwide UCI.
Tom Pidcock and Mathieu van der Poel — two riders better known for their road-cycling exploits — have joined the XCO line-up for Val di Sole UCI. Pidcock is a two-time Olympic mountain bike champion, having won gold at both the Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024 Games, and he took the XCO world title in 2023. Van der Poel's presence adds another layer: the Dutchman is a multi-discipline star who has won Monuments on the road and world titles in cyclocross, making his appearances on a mountain bike genuinely rare.
For followers of the women's race, the field is deep. Jenny Rissveds of Sweden lines up as the reigning world champion, while Switzerland's Sina Frei arrives as the current European champion BBC Sport. Martina Berta, racing on home Italian soil, will be looking to capitalise on local support in the Trentino valley.
Britain's Evie Richards, a former under-23 world champion, is also in the women's field. She finished fourth at the 2025 European Mountain Bike Championships — a result that put her within touching distance of the continental podium and signalled a return toward the sharp end of the sport after injury setbacks BBC Sport.
What makes Val di Sole stand out is the venue itself. The Trentino track is famously punishing — steep, root-laced climbs and technical descents that punish the slightest hesitation. Riders who can combine raw climbing power with bike-handling precision tend to thrive here, and the descents have decided more than one world title when the legs are evenly matched on the uphill.
For fans, the draw is simple: Pidcock chasing a second world rainbow jersey on a course that suits him, Van der Poel testing himself against the mountain bike elite, and a women's field where the world champion, the European champion and a hungry home rider all have legitimate claims to the title. The racing runs through Sunday.
