Charlie Aldridge (Great Britain) and Sina Frei (Switzerland) doubled up on Sunday, adding the Cross-Country Olympic (XCO) titles to their short-track victories at the 2026 UEC Mountain Bike European Championships.
Aldridge managed to carve out a gap of 12 seconds to Juri Zanotti (Italy) in second while Fabio Püntener (Switzerland) was third. It is the second year running Great Britain has claimed the men's European XCO title, though last year it was Tom Pidcock who swept up the win for the nation.
This year Aldridge managed to clinch the victory solo – stepping up from the runner-up spot in 2025 – after shaking off Zanotti in the final technical lap of the eight lap event in Monteceneri.
Latest Videos FromCyclingnews
It's another strong result for the 25-year-old Cannondale Factory Racing rider, who broke through with his first Whoop UCI Mountain Bike Series wins last year, one in the XCC and another in the XCO.
This year, even before the European Championships, he had already claimed both the British XCO and XCC titles as well as standing on the XCO podium at the muddy season opener of the Whoop UCI Mountain Bike World Series in South Korea and making the short track podium at last month's round in La Thuile.
Frei gave the home nation an elite victory to celebrate on Sunday when she crossed the line with a dominant margin and plenty of time to enjoy the cheers of the crowd.
"What a golden weekend," was simply how the Swiss rider summed up her European championships after crossing the line with a gap of 1:26 to compatriot Alessandra Keller. World champion Jenny Rissveds (Sweden) was third, just over two minutes back from the newly crowned 2026 XCO European champion.
Earlier in the weekend, Anja Grossmann (Switzerland) claimed the title in the women's junior XCO race while Mathieu Ghibaudo (France) clinched the junior men's title.
The U23 men's European jersey went to another French rider, Andre Gallis and Anina Hutter led a Swiss clean sweep of the women's U23 race.
