Plus a look at Jenny Rissveds’ bike.
Piper Albrecht
Jenny Rissveds (Sweden) has led a dominating race to be crowned the 2025 XCO World Champion. Fresh off the Les Gets World Cup top podium spot two weeks ago, the 2016 Olympic Champion controlled the race to win what is the first-ever medal for Sweden at an elite XCO World Championships.
Claiming the holeshot off the line, Rissveds drove the pace up the first climb, leaving everyone in her wake, with Martina Berta (Italy) chasing solo ahead of the rest of the pack. Rissveds maintained her solo lead until midway through the second lap when a spirited Alessandra Keller (Switzerland) closed down the gap on the steep second climb with Sammy Maxwell (New Zealand) in tow.
Rissveds on the attack.
Candice Lill (South Africa) was floating around in the top 10, but any chance of a good result was ruined when she detonated her rim on the exit of the rock garden, dropping back to 50th place.
Keller took to the front of the leading trio, but almost immediately tucked the front wheel in a small root section leading to the end of the second lap. Undeterred, she was back up and riding and rejoined Maxwell and Rissveds in the finish straight along with Evie Richards (United Kingdom), who’d tacked onto the Swiss rider after her crash. The leading quartet entered the 3rd lap together with Puck Pieterse (Netherlands) in close chase, followed by Martina Berta with Sina Frei (Switzerland), Nicole Koller (Switzerland), and Bec Henderson (Australia) at 30 seconds back.
It wasn’t Puck Pieterse’s day.
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