Dario Lillo (Giant Factory Off-Road Team) announced himself to the elite XCO World Cup in emphatic fashion, winning the opening round of the 2026 WHOOP UCI MTB World Cup at Mona Yongpyong in 1:24:36 - setting the fastest lap of the race in the process at 13:22. It was a breakthrough result for the 23-year-old Swiss rider, whose previous best World Cup finish was 13th at Pal Arinsal last year, and - according to race commentary - Switzerland's 80th elite men's XCO World Cup victory.
Photo: ©️ WHOOP UCI Mountain BIke World Series / Michal Cerveny
The timing feels significant. With Nino Schurter - the man who defined Swiss XCO dominance for two decades - now retired, the question of who carries the flag next has been answered early. Lillo wins. Finn Treudler, despite a nightmare of mechanicals, showed the pace to match anyone. Swiss XCO is not going anywhere.
Luca Martin (Cannondale Factory Racing) took second at +1:46 in a result that carried its own redemption narrative - the Frenchman had been forced out of the XCC on Friday with a puncture, and came back to claim his first World Cup podium. Charlie Aldridge (Cannondale Factory Racing) completed the podium in third at +2:39, with Jordan Sarrou (BMC Factory Racing) fourth and Joshua Dubau (Decathlon Ford Racing Team) fifth.
Notably absent from the start line was Christopher Blevins - the defending XCO overall champion who had been lapped in the XCC on Friday - who did not start the race.
The conditions were brutal from the off - light rain on a saturated course made every descent a lottery. Lillo set the pace early and never looked back, building a lead that would eventually reach over a minute at its peak.
The early drama centred on Mathis Azzaro - XCC winner on Friday and one of the pre-race favourites. Azzaro made a tyre change in the opening lap which cost him nearly three minutes, dropping him from podium contention to 22nd by the finish. His lap one split of 15:48 tells the story against Lillo's 13:22 opener.
Treudler was the other major talking point. The 22-year-old Cube Factory Racing rider - in his first elite XCO season after graduating from U23 last year - had the pace to run with the leaders and was firmly in podium contention through the early laps, running second behind Lillo. But four separate chain drops wrecked his race. Cube had made the calculated decision not to run a chainguide on the muddy course, fearing it would clog - but the gamble backfired badly, with Treudler walking and running sections of the course each time the chain came off. He eventually finished 13th at +4:18 - a result that flatters neither his ability nor his pace on the day.
Martin and Aldridge both benefited from Cannondale's decision to run the Lefty fork - the one-sided design offering significantly better mud clearance than conventional forks in the slippery conditions. On a day where equipment choices defined finishing positions, Cannondale got it right.
Aldridge's podium was made all the sweeter by the story behind his bib number. The 321 he carries is his own - World Cup winners earn the right to choose a permanent race number, and Aldridge has worn 321 ever since his Mont Sainte Anne victory. It was a fitting number to have on his back for another podium performance.
Filippo Lillo - no relation to the winner - finished sixth for the Italians, with Filippo Colombo eighth for Scott-SRAM and Fabio Puntener tenth - the world number one having a quiet weekend by his standards after seventh in the XCC.