World Championships: Great Britain's Aldridge and New Zealand's Maxwell win U23 MTB world titles

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Great Britain’s Charlie Aldridge captured the men’s under-23 title and Samara Maxwell of New Zealand won the women’s U23 title at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships. Both took solo victories, Aldridge using a final-lap attack and Maxwell riding five of her six laps out front.

The Friday races were held under overcast skies on the 3.5km circuit at Glentress Forest in the Scottish Borders. The men faced 1,015 metres of elevation gain, the women 870 metres, which wore down competitors on a technical course with stiff climbs mixed with rooty and rocky descents. 

U23 Men

Charlie Aldridge (Great Britain) charged from a leading group of three riders on the last lap and won the under-23 men’s world title in Scotland.

Adrien Boichis (France) finished 13 seconds back for the silver medal, while another 16 seconds later Dario Lillo (Switzerland) crossed the line to secure bronze. 

The 22-year-old from Perthshire in central Scotland made the most of his final appearance in the U23 category, accelerating in a technical, single-track section with only half a lap remaining. The two riders in tow could not match the pace.

“It feels insane. Standing in front of all my friends and family, I still can’t believe it,” he said about the strong crowd reaction when he received the rainbow jersey and gold medal on the podium. 

“Representing Great Britain across the world is one thing, but racing at home in the British jersey and then hearing ‘God Save the King’ when the flag went up was pretty cool, standing up there on the podium. Four years of under-23 and to pull it off in the last year is pretty good.”

A junior men’s XCO gold medallist in 2019, Aldridge made history with that victory as  the first British man to win a world title in cross-country mountain bike. He didn’t waste any energy and executed his plan to perfection.

The mass of 89 contestants assaulted the narrow funnel at the start causing  several riders to go offline with dropped chains and remounts. Away from the chaos, the front was controlled  by Boichis, who took the lead into the first singletrack section in the woods. Aldridge took a turn out front as the two were followed closely by Lillo and Riley Amos (USA). A long queue of riders filled the course behind the quartet.

It was not until the fourth lap that Tobias Lillelund (Denmark) and Jente Michels (Belgium) broke free from the field in a two-rider chase, but still had a long way to go to even get the front four in their sights. Riley began to lose touch with the lead pack on the fifth circuit and lost time in solo fourth place. 

Riding in third position on the final lap, Lillo made a small mistake as the lead trio headed up the long climb at the edge of the forest. Aldridge and Boichis gained a few seconds across a chunky section of deep roots, then Aldridge made his move. He kept the pressure high and held his gap to the line.

“It’s a long race so you have to save energy a bit and watch the other boys and see how they’re getting on. That last lap was just all out, whoever was the strongest really. I didn’t believe it until the finish line I think! I was just all out until I was at the home straight. All I could hear was ‘Go on Charlie’ up the climbs! It was super, super cool.” 

U23 Women

Samara Maxwell (New Zealand) wasted little time in attacking the course and the full field of 55 riders en route to her women’s U23 crown at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Scotland. She pounced at the front of the race in the first half lap, going solo across the ‘B-line’ of a tricky rock feature and never looking back.

Switzerland’s Ginia Caluori overtook her teammate Ronja Blōchlinger late in the race to secure silver, 1:01 off the winning time. Blōchlinger took bronze, 1:27 back. Emily Johnston of Canada made a late move to finish fourth, the only other rider to finish within 2 minutes of Maxwell.

Race favourite Sofie Pedersen (Denmark), the 2023 women’s U23 European champion with four World Cup wins this season, crashed on the first lap and had to pick off riders on the first pass of the long, winding forest ascent. She clawed her way into 12th position at one point, but faded to 17th at the end.

Maxwell, the reigning U23 champion of New Zealand, put on a clinical performance on Friday for the entire six-lap race to take her first win of this calendar year.

“It was incredible. I wanted to start off fast, make it a hard race from the start. I had a gap and I didn’t think I was going to hold it, I just kept going. I can't believe it,” the new World Champion said at the finish.

“You always think what does it take to be the best, and you think you have to suffer or sacrifice something. And to do this in a healthy and sustainable way means so much to me. You just need to be happy on your bike and enjoy what you are doing and you’’ get the results.

How many more laps could she have done? “None” was the answer.

“It was so hard. I loved the track. The technical features and the climbs were hard. Like the elevation profile, it doesn’t look steep, but it’s hard climbs. It is probably one of the best tracks I have ridden.”

With the sun shining through previously-overcast skies on the Glentress Forest on the second lap, Maxwell began to put in huge daylight between herself and the rest of the field. Blōchlinger worked her way into solo second with the gap now 22 seconds to the leader, fending off four riders - Kata Blanka Vas (Hungary), Ginia Caluori (Switzerland), Noëlle Buri (Switzerland) and Sara Cortinovis (Italy) - who began to close down her effort.

The two Swiss riders joined forces on the fourth lap as Blanka Vas and Cortinovis dropped off the pace. One circuit later, Caluori accelerated into lone second place, riding just five seconds ahead of Blōchlinger. Surging behind the Swiss pair was Canadian Johnston, who had passed Blanka Vas and trailed Caluori by 50 seconds.

Meanwhile, Maxwell kept pushing the pace and grabbed a New Zealand flag in the finish stretch to capture the world title in a time trial effort. Caluori extended her gap on her compatriot to ride solo in second, followed 26 seconds later by Blōchlinger.