5000 Meters of Climbing in 125km – 2025 XC Marathon World Championships

Pinkbike’s World Cup Videographer, Charlie Coquillard, received a VERY last minute offer to cover the epic XC Marathon World Championships in the Valais region of Switzerland. He had to say yes as the method of following the race was flying point to point in a helicopter to try and keep up with the fastest athletes in the world. The grueling 125km course across some of the most scenic peaks in the region would test the riders to their maximum. This is the race through Charlie’s eyes.

Like Pinkbike? Try Trailforks, the best mountain bike trail mapping app.
https://applink.trailforks.com/4EpG/fvn5pxf9

Subscribe for more content from the pulse of mountain biking.

Champery World Champs 2025 Videos:
• DH Bike Tech: https://youtu.be/p0JYzN1jMBo
• Course Preview: https://youtu.be/272XMu_8RdU
• Inside The Tape: https://youtu.be/tIHH6xeDC4k
• XC Marathon Helicopter Coverage: https://youtu.be/MQ6bzIGnHg8
• Junior Story Of The Race: https://youtu.be/KwYLzO0tz5Y
• Elite Story Of The Race: https://youtu.be/aDT5baaW0q4
• Average Biker Rides World Cup Track: https://youtu.be/Lbo1c_i_uFM

Website – https://pinkbike.com
Podcast – https://pinkbike.link/pbpodcast
Instagram – https://instagram.com/pinkbike
Facebook – https://facebook.com/pinkbikecom

[Music] Mountain bike fans, welcome to the 2025 Marathon XC World Championship. Yes, I am a Daniel reporter. However, we got a call last minute last night informing us that there was a spot left on the chopper that was going to go and cover the XC marathon race today. Obviously, I am no discipline expert. However, I am going to try to show you how insane this discipline is, how beautiful the places they’re going is, and hopefully it will make you want to watch a little bit more of XC Marathon in the future. So, jump with me in the chopper and discover this 125k course through the Swiss Alps. Unlike Daniel Racers, And athletes like to start early when it’s still cold, so they set off at 6:00 a.m. to brave the brisk morning of Verbier. [Music] A little early for my taste. However, other disciplines rarely get full chloric life band on course. So, there’s that. The women were starting 5 minutes after the men. But by the 15k mark, the top 10 group had already caught up with the back of the male pack. But wait, what exactly is XC marathon? And how is this Verdia course so different from a traditional track? Marathon is meaning it’s just long distance. So it’s not just 42 something kilometers. Uh it’s just really long. Uh here it’s 125ks and 5,000 m of climbing. What’s special here? It’s a A2B race. Uh normally the marathon would do a big loop and and here it’s crossing many valleys uh from Via to Breeze. [Music] After almost crash landing because the sun was facing the wrong direction, blinding out our pilot, we got to witness some rather interesting piloting strategies such as the OPPO balance cornering technique, the sit on the saddle downhill strategy, or some great classic like the god, I’m not making this one, or the timeless block pass well known from motocross afficionados. Interestingly, the course also included a set of slippery metal stairs, which I thought was a bold choice considering the cost of Afghan Switzerland for a foreigner, but some interesting shapes were thrown on that bit of ashalt. [Music] So, we have arrived at the third spot after a short hilly ride, and it’s a bit weird, but there is like an immature race going on. So, it’s like a bunch of middle-aged men just kind of like pushing their bike through the rocks. Um, I’m not really sure when the pros are supposed to storm through, but that seems like it might be a bit of an issue. The pros eventually did storm through, and it was indeed a little bit of an issue with a lot of shouting and scrambling onto rocks. But to the random punters defense, the elites did also struggle in those tight and technical rock sections with a fair amount of them deciding to dismount and run instead. Heat. Heat. [Music] [Music] Then it was time for the lead woman to storm through. And what a show. A pure display of power and skills with Kate Courtney clearing a rock garden 98% of the field. Men and women wouldn’t ride through without putting a foot down. Anna Winebeer wasn’t so lucky and ended up making a small mistake which would see her put the knee to the ground. At this stage, she looked pretty beat up and I didn’t know if she was going to hold on to Kate till the end. So, we’re at kilometer 80 and they’re going right there. See that? They’re going here. That is very unintent. [Music] So, I’m on the third and last pick. And I think the course creator may be a little sadistic because that pinch climb, I mean, I don’t even know if you can call it a pinch climb. That climb is vertical. Like, you wouldn’t catch me dead on an ebike trying to go up that. So, as you can see, this is the end. But wait, they’re coming all the way from there. Like, I can’t even see the bottom. It really doesn’t do it justice, but it is vertical. I’m going to try to go and measure how steep it actually is. 24°. That’s insane. See this sign? It means why are you doing this in French? And I have the same question. This is definitely an incredibly tough course. I don’t think the marathon worlds have had just quite such a tough course. Um, it is very special. The course record was just below 6 hours. Most marathon world championship have been around 5 hours for the main maximum plus the altitude. We’re here at 2,800 m. So that makes it really tough. [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] Unfortunately, because the finish was only 15k away and the average pace for the top guys was 20.7k an hour, we had to rush out As soon as the top five went by, Keegan Swenson would cross the line after red lining for 6 hours, 1 minute, and 44 seconds. He didn’t end up beating the course record because of the tough wet conditions in some sections, but battled through the whole race to take the lead between kilome 80 and 100. Obby, thanks for the support. You know, I know uh a lot of friends and family are watching back home and uh know everyone else. So, uh, yeah, really excited. So, it does seem like hard tails are back in a big way. Crazy to see that after all this technological advancement, you can still win an XC World Championship on one of those. [Music] Gate Courtney would cross the line about an hour and 10 minutes behind, and she surely was the most excited athlete on the planet that day. [Music] This course is crazy. Um, I I’m honestly can’t put it into words yet, but really really proud of this one and just really grateful that I was able to get it over the line on a clean ride today. It’s a super hard course. Uh, yeah, 125k, 5,000 m of climbing is insane. Um, I thought Lebl was hard and this like took the ante up a notch. But it’s challenges like these that I think like push us to the edge and provide a menu to like get the best out of yourself. And I’m really proud I was able to do that today. To be at the end of a 4,000 ft climb, hiking, carrying the bike is is just such mental torture. Honestly, I was calling it the portage of positivity. My mental coach and I worked on the hiking section a little bit. Um, and it was even harder than I imagined it would be. Yeah. I I feel like that’s where I really just had to like get gritty and make it up that the like scariest or hardest part of the course was that last descent. I had like a tiny sidewall cut just probably bad luck hit a rock somewhere. Um and I rode a flat tire basically from the top of that to the to the finish line which is the most technical descent of the course. So it really reminded me that like you know things are earned but they’re also given and I’m grateful that uh it worked out in the end. [Music]