2024 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships 2024 – how the races were won

The ultimate race recap covering all disciplines from the entire UCI MTB World Championship weekend.

off.road.cc staff

Sep 2 2024

[Words by Steve Thomas]

Leaving the best for last? That may be a cliché but at this year’s World Mountain Bike Championships that was definitely the case – in both the Elite XCO and Downhill races.

Cross Country – XCO, Mixed Team Relay and e-MTB

Flipping the recent Olympic podium on its head and South African Alan Hatherly took an astonishingly dominant victory in the Elite Men’s XCO race – the final race of the week.

The man from the Rainbow Nation took the first ever Elite XCO rainbow jersey ever for his country, and his second after winning the U23 title back in 2018 (his third of you add in the e-MTB of 2019).

Early on in the dusty and technical race, Britain’s Charlie Aldridge forged ahead, hauling Frenchman Victor Koretzky and Hatherly in tow. Meanwhile, the Olympic and defending World Champion Tom Pidcock was slowly but surely clawing his way back towards the lead after his characteristic slow start. With Aldridge driving hard at the front, you could only wonder where this would lead, especially as the canny Frenchman sat on for the ride and Hatherly bided his time.

Just as Pidcock almost made contact, Hatherly put in a blistering attack on a steep and loose climb, taking Koretzky with him. That is more or less how things stayed, with Pidcock and Aldridge yo-yoing between themselves in an ultimately fruitless but close chase behind them.

At the front, it would seem as though the South African was giving Koretzky a free tow to the line, and indeed he did attack in the closing stages. However, Hatherly knew it was coming and countered the move, leaving him eating his dust and choking on lactic acid. Hatherly was absolutely on fire, while Koretzky’s fire was on its last embers and Pidcock just didn’t seem to be on his best day.

This was not only a very special victory for Hatherly but it was a huge day for South African cycling, and if only Greg Minnaar had managed to win that final title race, that would have been beyond dreaming. As with Minnaar, we believe this will also be the last World Championships for the XCO GOAT, Nino Schurter, who finished an unlucky 13th in his championship grand finale.

The men’s U23 XCO title was taken by Luca Martin of France. Britain’s Max Greensill and Joe Blackmore finished 25th and 26th respectively.

We expected a hard-fought battle in the XCO Women’s race and had our eyes on of the duel between the ever-popular Puck Pieterse of the Netherlands and Olympic Champion Pauline Ferrand-Prevot of France, although in the end, this turned into a “double-Dutch” finale, with Pieterse taking the win in impressive style and by a convincing margin over her teammate Anne Terpstra, who had passed South African Candice Lill, who literally slipped out of contention in the closing laps.

Britain’s Evie Richards finished back in sixth spot and PFP was down in 11th place, not the way she hoped to end her top-fight MTB career.

The Women’s U23 XCO race was run off simultaneously with the Elite race, and what an incredible ride it was by the young Canadian Isabella Holmgren, to not only take victory in her age category but to finish fifth place overall (on top of her XCC win), showing a dusty pair of heels to the best in the business. This is a rider who is surely destined for even more greatness. Meantime Britain’s Ella Maclean-Howell took a solid fifth spot in the U23 race.

The first XCO races of the Championships were those of the Juniors, the young guns whose plight rarely gets mainstream media exposure, and where the stars of the very near future are carved out, something that doesn’t go amiss teams and sponsors looking to invest early in young talent.

This year it was Slovakian Viktoria Chladonova who stole the show in convincing style in the Junior Women’s race, with the best British finisher being Bethany-Ann Jackson in 32nd spot. The Junior Men’s race was, for the second year on the trot, won by Danish super-prodigy Albert Philipsen, who took nearly two minutes out of his nearest challenger, with Max Standen being best Brit in 39th spot. Last year, the Dane won both the Junior Road Race and XCO titles in Glasgo, and he is already signed to WorldTour road team Lidl-Trek for four years starting in 2025.

In the Mixed Team Relay the USA showed their growing depth of strength in numbers by upstaging the French team to take victory, while Brits finished back in 9th.

e-MTB World Championship

Despite a promising title debut for e-MTB back in 2019, when many male XCO stars took part, it had to be said that the sparks have not quite flown in recent times for the discipline. The woman’s title was fought out between just nine riders, with German racer Sofia Leda Wiedenroth taking the win ahead of the 2019 Champ Nathalie Schneitter of Switzerland. Just 23 men lined up for the e-MTB duel, which went to Frenchman Jerome Gilloux, with Britain’s only e-MTB racer, Robert Williams, taking 11th spot.

Short Track - XCC

The short-track XCO races are perhaps some of the most exciting bike races to watch, and this year they most certainly did not disappoint on that score, to say the least – especially for British fans.

This time around it really was all about Evie Richards; the young Malvern-born Brit has had a bit of a rough ride since she became Elite XCO World Champion back in 2021. Following a great fifth place in the 2024 Olympics, the bubbliest rider in the field made good in her favoured discipline. The final two laps of this race were sensational, with Evie duelling it out twist for turn with Olympic XCO Champ Pauline Ferrand-Prevot, and then taking the victory in a sprint finish.

The men’s race was also a real nail-biter, which was oh so closely fought out. The French took the rare reins from the off, and while Britain’s Tom Pidcock ploughed his way back through the field after a slow start, a slip-out was to ultimately put him out of medal contention.

In the closing stages, it was French ace Victor Koretzky who made a move, with Britain’s Charlie Aldridge and South African Alan Hatherly hot on his feels for silver and bronze, and with Pidcock recovering to finish eighth. It was a sweet and welcomed victory for the Frenchman after that final killer blow from Pidcock in the recent Paris Olympics.

The inaugural Woman’s U23 XCC saw three Canadian racers in the top four, with Isabella Holmgren taking the win ahead of British Olympian Ella Maclean-Howell taking a superb silver medal finish, with Ava Holmgren taking the third spot behind her sister – an amazing family result.

There were few surprises in the first-ever Men’s U23 XCC races, with American Olympian Riley Amos storing to victory ahead of his countryman Bjorn Riley. The best Brit was Max Greensill in the 29th spot.

Downhill - DH

Downhill racing in Andorra is always somewhat epic, and this time around it was fast, loose, technical, and closer than a gnat’s whisker – right through all races.

Followed by a week with mostly dry conditions (apart from an errant storm) the going here was in total contrast to the mud bath battle of Fort Bill in 2023, and yet as the dust got churned up all the more so it got even looser & slippery, and conditions changed with every shredder plummeting down the course.

At such high speeds, this was always going to be a tight race and one with no room for error. Midfield and it was former double World Champion Danny Hart of the UK who took the hot seat, having taken time on the lower section of the course – and being the first, and one of the few riders who managed that.

We expected this to be a French affair, and it was – although not quite in the order many anticipated. The omnipresent Loris Vergier was in the hot seat as the last riders took the start. All eyes fell on the French supremo Loic Bruni, odds on favourite and last man down to take the glory from Vergier.

It's not the first time Bruni has taken a fall in a big showdown, and he did just that, and while leading on time into the final section. As he rolled into the finish area, putting on a show for the crowd, it was Vergier who took his first-ever world title, ahead of countryman Benoit Coulanges and Canadian Finn Iles, with Hart ending up in fourth spot and Matt Jones next best Brit with 11th place.

Sadly, the soon-to-be retiring South African ace and locally based racer Greg Minnaar didn’t have the rainbow ending to his glorious and long career, finishing 23rd on the day. However, as a mark of respect, he did get to present the winner’s medals for the race, and we’re pretty sure there was one hell of a party in Andorra that night, hosted by Greg.

The women’s race was equally exciting and also came down to the last rider on the course – although on this occasion that was Austria’s young starless Valentia Holl, who did not put a tyre wrong on her closing run, taking the title ahead of former Champion, Myriam Nicole of France, with Britain’s Tahnee Seagrave taking a well-deserved bronze medal, which well and truly shows she has recovered from her near to career-ending injuries and trauma and is back on top of her game.

In the Men’s Junior Downhill race the young American Asa Vermette took an impressive victory, while the best Brit on the day was Noa Hirst-Walker in 11th place. The Junior Woman’s race was dominated by a sea of New Zealand & Australian racers, with victory going to Erice Van Leuven, while Brit Heather Wilson was 19th.

The takeaway

This was a superb World Championship week, in terms of the racing, the course, and the organisation. In many ways it marks a changing of the guard, with Minnaar and Shurter
“allegedly” leaving the sport behind (although we don’t fully believe either), and with Pauline Ferrand-Prevot also planning to focus on the road for the foreseeable – and perhaps last chapter of her career. As for Tom Pidcock, we don’t know, but we could well imagine that he will also focus more on the road in the coming few years – which makes sense for him.

That said, we’ve seen that there is a whole crop of extremely talented young racers all across the board, with the amazing rapid rise of Charlie Aldridge and Isabella Holmgren to name but two.

What is also very noticeable is the huge increase in numbers of prominent North American riders emerging, as well as the rise in junior numbers from Oceania, while numbers in the younger categories for the British is considerably lower – although historically (but maybe not rightly), that has often been the case, and we just hope that the performances of the likes of Evie Richards, Tom Pidcock, Charlie Aldridge and the omnipresent downhill stars from the island inspire more down the line, and in many ways.

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