Some days the calendar and fate line up. On Wednesday 26 August the Val di Sole raised the curtain on the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships, and the first medal handed out on Trentino soil stayed at home: gold in the Team Relay, a title Italy had not won since 2013.
Six riders wrote it — Juri Zanotti, Martina Berta, Fabio Bassignana, Valentina Corvi, Paolo Costa and Giorgia Pellizotti — in a relay settled in the penultimate leg. Zanotti had set the pace out front, Austria had turned it around by loading their men into the opening legs, and by the time Valentina Corvi took over the gap still looked like a real problem. The rider from Valtellina answered with the heaviest lap of the day: one minute thirty-five clawed back on Austria’s Piringer, then the pass, then a margin that reshaped the race. Bassignana only had to manage it, crossing the line with his arms raised in front of a delirious home crowd.
Behind the Italians, Switzerland took silver at 51 seconds and the United States bronze at 1’31”. Austria, after leading for long stretches, slipped to sixth.
The win was dedicated to Chiara Teocchi, absent after her crash at La Thuile. “It’s the one race where we really ride as a team,” Zanotti said, saving his applause for his teammates: “today they made the difference.” Berta echoed him, stressing how much it means to beat a Swiss squad of that calibre at a home World Championship.
The morning had already settled the E-MTB Cross-country titles, both heading abroad: Jérôme Gilloux claimed his fifth crown in six years, beating Joris Ryf by 8 seconds, while Anna Spielmann doubled up on her 2025 win in the women’s race. Daniele Braidot and Anna Oberparleiter were the best Italians, both fourth.
Thursday 27 raises the stakes: six titles across Junior Cross-country and Short Track, with free entry to the race site.
CATEGORY: Cycling / MTB
