Italy opened up the 2026 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships on home soil with their first gold medal in the Mixed Team Relay in 13 years, beating Switzerland and the United States in a thrilling come-from-behind team effort.
The event uses six riders from each nation, with one representative from the men's and women's junior, under-23 and elite teams, with the order of each rider's start up to the individual nation.
After taking the early lead by sending its elite men's rider Juri Zanotti off first, Italy then dropped to second behind a surging Austrian team, who led for three laps, with elite woman Mona Mitterwallner ending lap four with a lead of 1:35 over Italy and Switzerland, who were neck-and-neck.
However, Italy was able to retake the lead on the penultimate lap thanks to powerful rides from under-23 riders Valentina Corvi and Fabio Bassignana, who finished off the team's victorious effort, 51 seconds ahead of the Swiss.
“Winning in the Italian jersey at a home World Championships is a special feeling,” said Martina Berta. “I think it is incredible for all of us. Juri went out very hard, then we were all excellent, with some outstanding individual rides. Beating a very strong Swiss team makes us particularly proud.”
Switzerland and the United States both had strong last laps, with Luca Schatti leading the defending champions in for second, and Riley Amos holding off the Canadian team for third.
Results
Rank |
Team |
Splits |
Final time |
|---|---|---|---|
1 |
Italy |
1:08:06 |
|
Juri Zanotti |
10:03 |
||
Paolo Costa |
11:02 |
||
Martina Berta |
11:29 |
||
Giorgia Pellizotti |
13:00 |
||
Valentina Corvi |
12:05 |
||
Fabio Bassignana |
10:27 |
||
2 |
Switzerland |
1:08:57 |
|
Nicolas Halter |
10:08 |
||
Men Gygax |
11:08 |
||
Jolanda Neff |
12:04 |
||
Anina Hutter |
12:14 |
||
Anja Grossmann |
12:57 |
||
Luca Schatti |
10:26 |
||
3 |
United States |
1:09:37 |
|
Nicholas Konecny |
10:43 |
||
Noah Scholnick |
11:07 |
||
Haley Batten |
11:45 |
||
Aida Linton |
13:16 |
||
Bailey Cioppa |
12:41 |
||
Riley Amos |
10:05 |
||
4 |
Canada |
1:10:27 |
|
Maxime St Onge |
11:10 |
||
Ethan Wood |
10:50 |
||
Isabella Holmgren |
12:00 |
||
Eliane Blais |
13:54 |
||
Marin Lowe |
12:45 |
||
Cole Punchard |
9:48 |
||
5 |
Denmark |
1:10:46 |
|
Mikkel Lose |
11:02 |
||
Johannes Braedstrup-Holm |
10:58 |
||
Rose-Mai Damsgaard |
13:32 |
||
Julie Lillelund |
12:36 |
||
Caroline Bohe |
12:22 |
||
Sebastian Fini Juul |
10:16 |
||
6 |
Austria |
1:10:59 |
|
Alexander Hammerle |
10:35 |
||
Mario Bair |
10:22 |
||
Michael Hettegger |
10:45 |
||
Mona Mitterwallner |
12:17 |
||
Johanna Piringer |
14:21 |
||
Antonia Grangl |
12:39 |
||
7 |
Czechia |
1:12:07 |
|
Ondřej Cink |
10:26 |
||
Kuchař Josef |
11:19 |
||
Eliška Hanakova |
12:55 |
||
Lucie Grohova |
13:58 |
||
Adela Holubova |
12:54 |
||
Ondřej Novotny |
10:35 |
||
8 |
Germany |
1:13:16 |
|
Niklas Michael Franz |
10:43 |
||
Quirin Bach |
11:18 |
||
Finja Lipp |
13:15 |
||
Lina Huber |
13:48 |
||
Adina Daubner |
13:54 |
||
Lennart-Jan Krayer |
10:18 |
||
9 |
Brazil |
1:13:24 |
|
Alex Junior Malacarne |
10:36 |
||
Leonardo Bernardes de Castro Filho |
10:36 |
||
Angelina Santos da Silva |
13:48 |
||
Raiza Goulao Henrique |
13:15 |
||
Luiza Cocuzzi |
14:05 |
||
Vinicius Howe |
11:04 |
||
10 |
Spain |
1:14:43 |
|
David Domingo Campos Motos |
10:51 |
||
Marta Cano Espinosa |
12:54 |
||
Pablo Rodriguez Romo |
12:27 |
||
Estibaliz Sagardoy Zunzarren |
13:49 |
||
Irene Garcia Crespo |
14:08 |
||
Hugo Franco Gallego |
10:34 |
||
11 |
Athlete Individual Neutral |
1:16:30 |
|
Vadim Gvozdarev |
11:29 |
||
Polina Timoshenko |
14:51 |
||
Nikita Matveev |
11:54 |
||
Elina Semenova |
13:56 |
||
Tatiana Saitarova |
13:09 |
||
Yaroslav Shvedov |
11:11 |
||
12 |
Ukraine |
1:20:50 |
|
Volodymyr Obukhivskyi |
12:51 |
||
Mark Kovalchuk |
12:43 |
||
Oleksandr Koniaiev |
12:06 |
||
Ksenia Voronova |
15:53 |
||
Yana Belomoina |
13:11 |
||
Mariia Sukhopalova |
14:06 |
||
13 |
Slovakia |
||
Viliam Balog |
11:25 |
||
David Moška |
12:19 |
||
Tereza Kurnicka |
15:15 |
||
Dorota Vojtiškova |
15:45 |
||
Karolina Bortelova |
2009 |
||
Michal Šichta |
2008 |
