The 2022 Mountain Bike World Championships were held in Les Gets, France, home to many of the world’s fastest riders. French fans are just a different breed, attending each and every race in droves. With people all across the world tuning in to watch the action, things were about to get wild in Les Gets.

Friday’s Short Track Championships delivered on the action in front of wild crowds. Sam Gaze (Alpecin-Deceuninck) stormed to claim the rainbow jersey in the Elite Men. Because the XCC didn’t matter in terms of the XCO start order, Nino Schurter (Scott SRAM) chose not to participate in order to focus on Sunday’s XCO race. In Elite Women, Kate Courtney (Scott SRAM) had a great race, finishing in eighth place.

Arguably the main event, the Downhill Championships drew an unbelievable number of people to the hillside to watch the world’s best race for the rainbow jersey. Junior Women saw Gracey Hemstreet (Norco Factory Team) and Valentina Roa Sanchez (Pro Builds Racing) take second and third places. Jordan Williams (Madison Saracen) had the run of his life in Junior Men, taking the top spot and the coveted rainbow stripes! Bodhi Kuhn (Trek Bikes) managed a fifth-place finish behind Jordan.

Elite Men had the top three spots taken by the French (competition or not, how can you not love that fairy tale ending?) with Troy Brosnan (Canyon CLLCTV) and Laurie Greenland (Santa Cruz Syndicate) rounding out the podium in fourth and fifth. In Elite Women, it was a different story – Vali Höll (Rockshox Trek Race Team) became the 2022 World Champion after a scorching run down the challenging Les Gets track. Nina Hoffmann (Santa Cruz Syndicate) was right behind her in the silver medal spot, less than a second off the win.

The final event of the 2022 World Championships was the XCO on Sunday. Ghost Factory Racing had another solid performance in the Elite Women’s field with Anne Terpstra snagging sixth place and Caroline Bohe in ninth. Nino Schurter is on a different level – the legend took his tenth XCO World Championship, an absolutely unrivaled statistic!

Maxxis athletes claimed three World Championship victories this year, and we could not be more proud of them and everyone else who showed up to battle their hearts out. Until next year in Fort William!