New venues, new champs? The 2026 Mountain Bike World Series is upon us

Piper Albrecht

The 2026 Mountain Bike World Series kicks off this weekend, May 1-3, with its first ever visit to Asia at Mona YongPyong, South Korea. Eight more cross-country rounds follow, including at two other new venues: La Thuile-Valle d'Aosta, Italy and Soldier Hollow, Utah (US). Here is a preview of the season ahead, but keep an eye out later this week for a feature story on promoter Warner Bros Discovery. We also have Escape Collective contributor Dominic Geoghegan on the ground in South Korea looking for new and interesting tech from the opening weekend.

In many respects, the 2026 Mountain Bike World Series season begins where 2025 ended. Men's XCO series champion Christopher Blevins (Specialized Factory Racing) starts as the rider to beat after finally delivering on the potential many long expected, but Cannondale Factory Racing’s late-season surge through Charlie Aldridge and Luca Martin suggests Specialized may not have things its own way this season.

In the women’s field, the absence of reigning XCO champion Samara Maxwell (Decathlon-Ford) leaves the overall race wide open as she has stepped away from the sport for a season. Jenny Rissveds (Canyon XC Racing), Alessandra Keller (Thömus Maxon), Evie Richards (Trek Unbroken XC), Nicole Koller (Lapierre-PXR Racing) and others all begin the year with realistic ambitions of stepping into the vacancy at the top.

Beyond the title fights, three new venues across the nine-round series, including a first-ever opening round in Asia, add uncertainty to a campaign already rich in storylines.

Before the lights go out, it is worth revisiting how 2025 shaped up and what we can expect from the season ahead.

What happened in 2025?

The 2025 XC World Series season was defined by the arrival of new names to the top of the leaderboard, with both men’s and women’s XCO overall series champions claiming their first titles. Blevins managed to win his title through a streak of early- to mid-season dominance, while the women’s title was ultimately decided through unwavering consistency.

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In the men’s field, Specialized Factory XC set the pace throughout much of the year. Alongside Blevins, Martín Vidaurre and Victor Koretzky helped Specialized claim five of the 10 XCO wins. However, there is no denying that 2025 was Blevins' year; with six XCC wins and three XCO wins, he finally displayed the performances that many knew he was capable of.

Specialized Factory Racing dominated the men's 2025 season.

As the season rolled on, the Cannondale Factory Racing duo of Charlie Aldridge and Luca Martin found their legs, taking the challenge to the big S. Martin claimed two XCC wins and an XCO victory in Les Gets, France. He also lost a chance to challenge Olympic champion Tom Pidcock in Andorra after a late mechanical, while Aldridge won the XCC in Les Gets before ending the year with an XCO victory at the final round in Mont-Sainte-Anne, Canada.

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In the women’s field, Samara Maxwell built her title-winning campaign on a foundation of consistency. Across the season, the New Zealander only fell away from the XCO podium on one occasion, with a sixth-place finish in Lenzerheide, Switzerland. It was this season-long consistency that kept a storming Jenny Rissveds at bay as the Swedish veteran became almost untouchable in the second half of the season, with three XCO wins and one second-place finish across the final four rounds.

Evie Richards achieved her season objective, claiming her first overall title in short track.

Elsewhere, Evie Richards made it her season’s objective to claim her first overall title in XCC, and looked to be finding her best form since 2021. She delivered on her XCC ambitions, but a series of mechanical incidents ended multiple challenges to contest an XCO win.

The 2025 season hinted at a shift in the faces at the front of the race. Even though traditional powerhouse nations such as Switzerland and France remain deeply stacked with talent, riders from outside those core nations, particularly from the United States and the UK, are increasingly pushing back towards the front of the sport.

The 2026 schedule

The 2026 XC World Series stretches across three continents, swapping the vibrant red dirt of Araxa, Brazil, for the series’ first visit to Asia to get the season underway, before settling into the traditional heartland of cross-country racing through the European summer, finally heading stateside for the closing rounds.

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