‘That’s our podium, that’s our decision!’ – Fourth and fifth placed Forster and Schurter crash men’s reduced XCO podium at World Series opener in Brazil

The opening 2025 round of the Whoop UCI Mountain Bike World Series in Brazil was meant to deliver the first three-rider cross-country olympic (XCO) elite podiums in decades after the UCI and global promoter Warner Bros. Discovery announced plans to cut the number from five – the men’s elite riders, however, had other ideas.

The official proceedings for the women’s elite XCO race, a high-emotion debut win for New Zealand’s Samara Maxwell (Decathlon Ford), went off in line with the new three-rider prodium protocol as awards and the champagne sprays were televised earlier on Sunday. But the men’s elite XCO podium took a different turn.

The top three riders, all from Specialized Factory Racing – Victor Koretzky, Christopher Blevins and Martin Vidaurre – received their prizes and stood on the steps for photos. However, they soon shuffled over to make room for fourth-placed Lars Forster (Thömus maxon) and fifth-placed Nino Schurter (Scott-SRAM) on the steps after the fourth and fifth-placed riders bounded up onto the stage once the officials departed, with their move accompanied by a huge roar from the crowd.

The broadcast from Araxá quickly cut to an out of focus shot of a tree and purple flowers once the two extra riders joined the podium, before putting up the results instead of the continuation of the podium ceremony.

Broadly supported rider opposition to the plan for a cut to the long-standing five-rider podium was brought to prominence in the public arena when last week more than 120 riders, including the entire top 30 of the men and women, delivered a statement firmly objecting to the change and the way it was implemented despite their clear opposition.

However, the podium extras show that not all the riders were content to leave it at that.

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‘That’s our podium, that’s our decision!’ – Fourth and fifth placed Forster and Schurter crash men’s reduced XCO podium at World Series opener in Brazil

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‘That’s our podium, that’s our decision!’ – Fourth and fifth placed Forster and Schurter crash men’s reduced XCO podium at World Series opener in Brazil

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