Wilier-Vittoria: UCI MTB World Series 2026, Round 9 Lake Placid - Recap

The 2026 season of the Wilier-Vittoria MTB Factory Team is officially in the books. Lake Placid, USA, hosted the final round of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup, bringing to a close a nine-round campaign that took the team around the world from May to October. Throughout those intense months, the Italian squad was consistently in the thick of the action, and 4th place in the final team standings is a fitting reward for the hard work and consistency shown throughout the season.

“It’s been a long and very demanding season that required a huge amount of energy from everyone, and I think our first thought should go to our staff,” said Marco Trentin, Team Principal of Wilier-Vittoria. “The level of competition has risen enormously and today, if you want to be competitive, you need to excel in every area: from preparation to race management, from technical work to everything that goes on around the athletes.”“Behind these results there is a huge amount of work, and I’m really proud of the way the whole team approached this season. I believe we’ve taken another step forward as a team. Both collectively and individually, we were competitive right to the very end and came very close to the podium in the team standings. The gap separating us from the very best is really small.

“I’m extremely proud of everyone: the riders, the staff and all the people who worked behind the scenes throughout such a long and intense season. That is the greatest value we take away from this year.”

As for Lake Placid, Italian champion Simone Avondetto brought his season to a close in impressive fashion, finishing 6th in the XCO and gaining one more position in the overall standings to secure an excellent 4th place overall. Racing against the best mountain bikers in the world, the Piedmontese rider never looked out of place, proving that he now belongs among that select group himself.

“I’m really happy with the season I’ve had and I feel I’ve taken a big step forward compared to last year,” said Avondetto. “Fourth place in the overall standings is definitely a great result and I think it confirms the progress I’ve made throughout the year, especially in terms of consistency and confidence in my own abilities. At the same time, there are a few regrets. I think about some races where the podium – and on a few occasions even the win – was really within reach, but for one reason or another it slipped away. Those situations make you think, but I believe they’re also part of the growth process. I feel I’m on the right path, and those small regrets give me even more motivation to keep working and try to take another step forward.”

It was also a positive weekend in the US for Luca Braidot and Juri Zanotti, with Braidot finishing 10th in Saturday’s XCO and Zanotti taking 16th. Both also secured a place inside the top 15 of the final overall standings, with Braidot 13th and Zanotti 15th, further underlining the strength and depth of the Wilier-Vittoria squad.

Sofie Heby Pedersen finished 14th in the final race of the year, the same position she secured in the overall standings, at the end of a season in which she showed significant progress. Her brother Gustav Heby Pedersen, whose season was highlighted by his brilliant XCC-XCO double in Les Gets, was slowed by a mechanical issue in Lake Placid. He nevertheless finished 6th in the XCO and secured 4th place in the final U23 overall standings.

The only sour note of the final weekend was Ella MacPhee’s withdrawal. The young Canadian, who suffered a heavy crash two weeks ago, experienced some dizziness during Sunday’s race and wisely decided to stop rather than take any unnecessary risks. After a season full of ups and downs, MacPhee finished 7th in the U23 overall standings.