Trek Factory Racing is on a heater heading into World Cup finale

We called Lenzerheide the best weekend of 2025 “so far” for Trek Factory Racing-Pirelli XC and Trek Factory Racing DH. We’re happy we added that emphasis. Both mountain bike squads are finding their groove in the home stretch of the season, upping their success in Lake Placid to set up a thriller finale in Mont-Sainte-Anne this coming weekend.

On Saturday, Sacha Earnest scored her first career elite World Cup podium, producing a new career best to better the previous high-water mark she set two weeks earlier. She is on a fast and consistent run of form. In her last four World Cup starts, including qualifiers, she has finished fifth, fifth, second, and third, and she was just 0.034 seconds — just over three-hundredths of a second — behind Myriam Nicole for the silver position in Lake Placid.

“I crossed the line, seeing the number two, and I couldn’t hold it. I cried,” Earnest said after the race. “I ran over to the managers and cried, and to my friends and cried. It’s just something I haven’t thought was possible at the moment.”

Earnest will be heavily watched in the women’s field next weekend on one of the toughest courses of the season in Mont-Sainte-Anne. No matter what happens, the 19-year-old will carry a lot of momentum into the offseason.

“I’m so, so stoked to be on the podium, and then also a bit of a relief to know I can do it and it won’t take me too long to get to the top,” Earnest said. “I have the momentum now to push into the offseason and train really hard, and then start all over again next year.”

Among her men’s teammates, Lachie Stevens-McNab once again showcased his elite pace, taking sixth in qualifications, 1.848 seconds off of P1. Unfortunately, he crashed early in his finals run, getting bucked after entering a deep hole in the dusty track. Ollie Davis took 20th in his finals run, which is a strong sign of progression approaching the end of a season mired by injuries. He advanced to finals after taking P2 in the second qualifiers.

In XC racing, TFR riders turned in some of their best performances of the season across the roster. Enough can’t be said about the incomparable Evie Richards, who pulled off a double-silver weekend, taking second in short track on Friday and XCO on Sunday. Since recovering from Covid after European Championships, the two-time World Champ has been on a steady rise, taking fifth in short track and eighth in XCO in Les Gets, then second in short track and fourth in XCO (a potential winning bid, marred by a puncture) in Les Gets. No one will be hungrier for the top step in Mont-Sainte-Anne.

“I just felt like I just kept trying to attack. Whenever we got to a hill, I just tried to get out of the saddle and push like the men do,” Richards said after the race. “I’m super happy. I was stressed this week because I just got in my head about that jump, and I know it makes a big difference. So I’m super pleased I still managed to get second without doing that [laughs].”

Richards was especially pleased with how she performed considering the course she faced. Lake Placid was full of big features, and the dry dusty conditions made it especially loose and chaotic. She’s looking forward to the all-around burliness of Mont-Sainte-Anne, and hopefully some rain to help her feel even more at home.

“The course I found hard. I didn’t think it suited me at all. It’s the sort of features and sort of conditions I find really hard. So to get a good result on a course that I find challenging [was amazing,]” Richard said. “I love Mont-Sainte-Anne. I really hope for some rain. It’s a quite scary course to race, and I really like that feature about it, so I think there’s going to be some chaos, and I can’t wait for next weekend.”

The final two rounds of the World Cup circuit have been year-long targets for TFR’s North American contingent: Americans Riley Amos, Gwendalyn Gibson and Madigan Munro, and Canadian Gunnar Holmgren. They all showed off their best selves in Lake Placid.

Amos finished 11th on Sunday for his best World Cup finish yet as an elite. After a barn-storming final year in U23s — which included both the short track and XCO World Cup overall titles, and seventh at the Paris Olympics — Amos’ first season at the highest level of mountain bike racing has been a difficult adjustment at times. Sunday’s performance showed that when he puts together a consistent race, he can stick with just about any rider in the world.

“I felt so good the first 20-30 minutes that I was so scared, because I was like, this feels too good. I hope I don’t shoot all the matches. So I really tried to hold back a little,” Amos said after the race. “Obviously this has been been a little bit of a hard year for us, but I’m thankful for the support in hard times and in good times.”

Gibson and Munro are also establishing themselves farther and farther up the elite women’s field. Gibson gave her most consistent performance of the season, taking 14th in short track and 15th in XCO. Munro is becoming a Top 20 mainstay in her first year as an elite, taking 22nd in short track and 17th in XCO coming off career-best finishes in Lenzerheide. 

Holmgren also had a season-best performance in Lake Placid, finishing 26th in XCO. He’ll be champing at the bit to show out in front of a home crowd next weekend. 

It may be no surprise that both the XC and DH squads are performing well, top to bottom, at the same time. The close relationships among riders means that they simultaneously push each other and lift each other up on race days.

“It’s been so good to have a great team of riders where we just care about each other and support each other,” Amos said. “That’s been everything.”

The TFR XC and DH squads are primed to give us fireworks next weekend. Dare we say, they’re the must-watch squads of the race. They both shook things up in the offseason, building upon exciting, unproven talent, and a tight-knit atmosphere. That hard work may be paying off at exactly the right time.