On Saturday, two American mountain bike riders — Kate Courtney and Keegan Swenson — won Cross-country Marathon (XCM) World Titles at the 2025 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships. Not only was this the first time two Americans won — it’s also the first time any American, man or woman, has been crowned XCM World Champ.
Courtney dominated the race from the beginning
The 2025 World Championship XCM race course took riders between the Swiss towns of Verbier and Grimentz, a distance of 125km with 16K feet of climbing. Courtney was the first through the initial race checkpoint and never lost her position throughout the race despite riding with a flat tire for the last 20 minutes of the race.
“Today, I pulled on the rainbow jersey for the second time in my career – this time in the marathon discipline,” Courtney wrote on Instagram. “This was one of the hardest and most unexpected races of my career.”
Courtney finished in 7:10:11.1 which was almost four minutes faster than second-place finisher Anna Weinbeer of Switzerland. Unlike the men’s race, the women’s race saw very few lead changes among the top 7 riders.
In 2018, Courtney won the XCO World Championship race, becoming the first woman to do so since 2001.
Swenson battles to take the lead for a closer men’s race finish
Swenson sat in fourth position through the first two checkpoints of the XCM World Championship race, moving up to third place by the third checkpoint and then first by the fourth checkpoint. By the sixth checkpoint he would take the lead for the rest of the race, finishing in 6:01:44.3, just 25 seconds ahead of second-place finisher Samuele Porro from Italy.
Both Swenson and Courtney won the Leadville Trail 100 MTB race emphatically last month, with winning margins of about 15 minutes and 11 minutes, respectively. Courtney also smashed the women’s course record for Leadville with her win, and both clearly had momentum going into the World Champs this weekend.
US athletes also have a strong showing in Downhill World Champs
At the Downhill (DHI) World Championship this weekend, three American men finished in the top 10 for the Elite race. Dylan Maples took sixth place, Luca Shaw finished eighth, and Dakotah Norton was right behind Shaw in ninth.
In the Elite women’s DH race, USA racer Anna Newkirk finished eighth.
The XCC World Championship finals take place in Valais, Switzerland tomorrow, with the XCO finals beginning on Thursday.
What is Cross-Country Marathon?
Separate from Cross-county Olympic (XCO) and Cross-country Short Track (XCC), the XCM race format was established by the UCI in 2003. The worldwide cycling governing body named its first world champion that year, establishing the race as a long-distance alternative to XCO racing.
XCM races typically involve a mass start with up to 150 riders. In 2023 the UCI announced that courses would be set at exactly 100km (about 62mi) long to “promote closer racing and parity of course design across the series,” though this year’s 125km World Championship course was clearly longer than that. Riders have access to technical and feed zones along the course, typically spaced about 20km apart, so riders need to avoid mechanical issues and manage their own nutrition much more closely than in a typical XCO or XCC race.
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