Evie Richards and company have found their legs with just two World Cups to go in 2026
The Trek-Unbroken XC squad showed out on the biggest stage in mountain bike racing, with strong results at World Championships in Val di Sole that should set up the riders for a strong closing stretch to the 2026 season.
Evie Richards returned to her place among the very fastest women in the world. She took silver in short track racing on Thursday, missing gold by a hair in an all-out sprint for the line against Laura Stigger. Just check out the photo finish. Richards then took sixth in Olympic-distance racing Sunday, finishing 51 seconds off the podium.
Evie on the charge in Val di Sole on Sunday.
Gwendalyn Gibson (left) and Nina Graf (right) post-XCO.
It was a welcome return to form. Richards suffered a concussion in a bad crash in Nové Město, and has spent the intervening weeks recovering and rebuilding her speed. With her fifth career World Championships medal, she’s found her legs again.
“It’s just nice to be back. Oh my gosh, it feels like it’s taken a long time,” Evie said after short track racing. “I’m just so happy. It’s just nice to have that adrenaline of racing. And it’s just been relentless this year. And it just feels like all the hard work, it’s just … I’m just so happy.
“And I’m even more happy that it was so close, you know? When it’s so close, then it’s like, I was there. I was so close.”
Isabella Holmgren on her way to an impressive 12th in her first-ever World Championships as an elite.
Vlad Dascalu has been quietly having an impressive season while starting deep in the men's grid.
Gwendalyn Gibson also turned in a strong effort, taking 15th in short track and 11th in XCO, continuing a season of consistent results. She currently sits ninth in the women’s World Cup XCO rankings. Just behind Gibson, Isabella Holmgren, who also stars on the road for Lidl-Trek, finished 12th in her first World Championships racing as an elite. She won the XCC and XCO U23 World Championships in 2024 and 2025.
In men’s racing, Vlad Dascalu finished an impressive 18th after starting deep in the men’s field, with final lap times matching or bettering the podium finishers.
Riley Amos celebrating bronze after racing the anchor leg for Team USA.
Just two more World Cup races left in 2026. Full gas.
Nina Graf and Riley Amos underperformed their high expectations in individual racing — Graf taking 25th and 18th in XCC and XCO racing, respectively, and Amos taking 34th in XCO — but Amos earned an impressive bronze medal in the mixed relay for Team USA, anchoring the squad and pushing it onto the podium after starting his lap in fourth place.
Luckily, they’ll have nearly three weeks to regroup before the penultimate round of XC World Cup racing in Soldier Hollow, Utah, from Sept. 19-20. Meanwhile, Richards, Gibson, Holmgren and Dascalu will look to build off the fine form they displayed in Val di Sole. The 2026 season has one last chapter left, and Trek-Unbroken is poised to make it a thriller.
More images from World Champs, via photographer Ross Bell:
