Puck Pieterse missed the opening double in Araxá, Minas Gerais (Brazil), but has since made it clear that she wants to catch up. Loana Lecomte can follow the early start. But even the French champion has to let go shortly afterwards and sees the rainbow jersey slowly disappear. Pieterse's attack pulls the peloton far apart. Maxwell, for her part, started a powerful chase up the mountain on the second lap and distanced her rivals in the overall classification, even though the gap to the leaders was growing.

The pouring rain made things difficult for the peloton. Jenny Rissveds slips in the cyclocross section, Evie Richards suffers a similar fate on the final lap. Candice Lill decides to tackle the steep root section on the seat of her pants. At the front, Lecomte watches as the third rider, Switzerland's Ramona Forchini, passes her. However, Forchini was unable to get any closer to Maxwell, even when the overall leader crashed on a technical downhill and slid into a net.

Maxwell gained time on Pieterse on the descents, but she had no chance against the Dutchwoman on the climbs. Even though Pieterse showed the first signs of fatigue on the sixth lap, she remained uncatchable.

On the last lap, it looked at times as if the entire field was only moving in slow motion. Lecomte slips again and loses places to Tamara Wiedmann and mud specialist Jolanda Neff. Neff and Wiedmann deliver the most exciting finish, with Neff taking fourth place in the final sprint. Pieterse wins by 50 seconds ahead of Samara Maxwell. Ramona Forchini rides to third place. The other Swiss riders are Nicole Koller in eighth place and Alessandra Keller in twelfth place.

"It was one of my goals to have the perfect weekend. Today it finally worked out. I was perhaps a little too impatient to ride straight to the front, but I just can't wait, so I gave it a go," said Pieterse.

Despite the defeat, Samara Maxwell also has reason to be happy. After a crash and a lost chain, she fought her way up to second place and extended her overall lead to 290 points.

Rankings Elite Women

Cink makes history 

In the Elite Men, the decisive maneuver initially failed to materialize, but a thrilling finale developed in the final laps. Ondřej Cink looks caught up at times, but finds new momentum and celebrates a historic victory.

Martin Vidaurre Kossmann takes command for Specialized Factory Racing at the start, but the day turns into a nightmare for the previously unbeaten men's team of 2025. Vidaurre drops back and finishes the race in 24th place, while Victor Koretzky comes off his bike at the end of the second lap due to illness and after a training crash. Christopher Blevins did not have a good day either. Without any recognizable external influences, he only rode to 17th place.

Vidaurre was initially part of a leading group with Julian Schelb, Mathias Flückiger and Ondřej Cink. However, only Flückiger and Cink were able to stay in front, while the peloton was shaken up by crashes and position changes.

Swiss rider Vital Albin showed fighting qualities. Together with Hatherly and Fabio Püntener, he caught up with the leading group, passed Vidaurre and, together with Flückiger, became the hardest chasing duo behind Cink.

Cink never had a lead of more than 24 seconds, at times the gap melted to eleven seconds. But the Czech battled on, mobilizing all his strength in the final kilometers and saving an 18-second lead to the finish. Mathias Flückiger is able to break away from Püntener on the final climb, finishes second and is pleased with his improving form. Swiss rider Fabio Püntener completes the podium in third place. Püntener was without a team before the season, then found shelter with Team Solothurn and has so far impressively justified this trust. After finishing eighth in Araxá and fifth in Nové Město, he made it onto the World Cup podium in Leogang for the first time in his career. The other Swiss riders ensure a perfect Swiss team result with Lars Forster in fifth, Filippo Colombo in sixth, Vital Alpin in ninth, Nino Schurter in eleventh and Dario Lillo in fifteenth.

At 34, Cink is the second oldest male XCO rider to celebrate his first cross-country World Cup victory, only Ned Overend was older in 1994. He is also the first Czech in ten years to win an elite World Cup.

"I am over the moon. I've waited so long for this moment. I've been second so many times. I love this place, I was U23 World Champion here in Saalfelden in 2012. At times I really thought my career was over because I'm one of the oldest riders in the field. I just can't find words," says Cink.

Rankings Elite Men

The Swiss dominate the U23

Finn Treudler breaks away on the second lap and, like Pieterse, disappears from view. In the end, he won the men's U23 race by 47 seconds. This impressively confirms his role as the dominator in this category.

After Treudler was beaten by the German Paul Schehl in Nové Město Na Moravě (Czech Republic), he now fought back and relegated Schehl to second place. Swiss rider Nicolas Halter rode to third place. 

"It's incredible to finally get the double with short track and XCO. I'm super happy, especially in these difficult conditions," says Treudler. "The track changes with every lap because it dries slowly. It was a really tough race, but I'm very happy with the win."

In the U23 women's race, only Elina Benoit was able to keep up with Fiona Schibler's brutal pace at the start. But it didn't take long for the leader to pull away from her compatriot. On a day full of solo victories, Schibler's triumph is the clearest. Only Switzerland's Monique Halter comes within two minutes of the outstanding Swiss rider, who celebrates her first victory in the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series. Elina Benoit rides across the finish line in third place and ensures a triple triumph from a Swiss perspective. 

Overall leader Ella MacPhee experiences her weakest XCO race of the season so far in seventh place. But with Isabella Holmgren missing, she remains in the lead with a lead of almost 100 points. With her victory, Schibler moves up to sixth place in the overall standings and says after the race: "It was incredible. I had a good start, was at the front with Elina, then I took off on the third lap and was alone at the front. We changed wheels before the race and I just rode safe lines," said Schibler.

Rankings U23 women

Rankings U23 men