MTB SEASON REVIEW: A RAINBOW JERSEY AND 7 UCI WORLD CUP WINS

The 2024 season has been another memorable year for Canyon in mountain biking with success in several rounds of the UCI World Cup and a phenomenally well-deserved rainbow jersey for world champion Puck Pieterse (Fenix-Deceuninck) in the women’s XCO in Pal Arinsal, Andorra. 

Several other athletes, including Sam Gaze (Alpecin-Deceuninck) and Luca Schwarzbauer (CANYON CLLCTV) also made headlines thanks to their sheer determination and consistency. Before closing out the year and turning our attention to 2025 we look back at this season and catch up with Puck, Sam and Luca about their exploits on the Lux World Cup CFR.

For Puck, it was a year to remember. The young Dutch rider had her best season to date, winning across several disciplines and creating incredible memories. 

In MTB the 22-year-old enjoyed relentless success, winning the UEC European Continental Championships in the XCO discipline in May. Her first World Cup success followed soon after with victory in the short track event in Val di Sole, Italy. A week later Pieterse won her second short track World Cup race at Crans-Montana in Switzerland before a third victory, this time in the XCO race at Haute-Savoie, France, followed. 

After taking fourth in the Olympic Games in Paris, Pieterse headed to Pal Arinsal, Andorra, where she claimed the highlight of what had already been an incredible season with victory in her first elite-level UCI MTB World Championships. 

Pieterse was also pleased with her consistent level throughout the campaign.

“The rest of the calendar went well for me too. I focused on the European rounds of the World Cup and the European Championships where I picked up my second title in a row. I was super happy to reach my level of 2023 and start winning races on a consistent level,” she said.

Having recently switched to cyclo-cross, Pieterse's focus is on her World Cup and World Championships aspirations in that discipline but she already has one eye on 2025 and her mountain bike goals as the reigning world champion. 

 
“The plan for next year is to target the European World Cups again and then see how the year unfolds. I hope to do all of them. That’ll take some good scheduling but I’ll try and make work,” she said.

While Pieterse is looking forward to racing in the rainbow jersey, Sam Gaze is in a position where he can look back at that exact experience with a sense of pride. The New Zealander won the XCO World title in 2023 and did the rainbow jersey proud with a thoroughly consistent year. The 29-year-old picked up five wins in 2024, two of which were short track rounds of the UCI World Cup. 

Although he missed out on a medal in Paris, Gaze can look back on a year of success that stretched from March until September. 

“To be honest my biggest achievement was my consistency,” Sam said. “I missed that really special day that I could rely on once or twice in a season but as a whole, winning two short-track World Cups and riding in the rainbow jersey was something I’ll remember. They were real highlights but if I can put it down to one performance that I can be most proud of I think my best day on the bike was when I was third in Lege short-track. I had a mechanical which couldn’t be foreseen but I rode back onto the podium, and that was really nice. When it came to the Olympics I was sixth at the finish and that was honestly the maximum that I could do,” he added.

The race calendar took Gaze all over the world, with racing on three continents. The standout moment might have been his short track World Cup win in Brazil, where he got to experience some of the most vibrant and passionate fans on the planet.

“I picked up a couple of wins, and winning in Brazil in front of those amazing fans was another massive highlight. Of course, winning in the rainbow jersey in Val di Sole was also special,” he said.

After a short break, Gaze returned to training three weeks ago and is determined to turn 2025 into an even more successful year than this one.

“I’m already back into training ahead of what I hope will be my best season yet. My biggest ambition is to win the XCO world title. I’d like to do more road cycling in the spring but obviously the XCO world title is the one that still eludes me out of the cross-country titles, so it’s full-steam ahead for that one. I want to get my hands up in the air as much as possible,” he told us.

Like Gaze, German national XCC champion Luca Schwarzbauer had a solid season. The 28-year-old might have missed out on an individual victory in the UCI World Cup but his reliable performances and dependable displays still saw him take second in the short track in Brazil as well as making the final World Cup short track podium at the end of the season as part of the CANYON CLLCTV XCO team.

“I had a solid season but I missed the big highlights in 2024,” the German said.

“I raced my first Olympics and after 2023 I thought that I could do something special in Paris if everything went perfectly but in the end, it wasn’t the best race. On the other hand, I was super solid all year and constantly in the top ten. I was third overall in the World Cup short track, and being on the podium with the best athletes showed that I was consistent. In the XCO overall I was sixth and that reflected my season. It wasn't spectacular but again it was solid. I also won the German national title and that wasn’t an easy race to win.

"Next year we want to try a few new things but I’ve had a good chance to catch my breath after a long season, so I’m ready to build up again for next season,” he said.

Elsewhere, Thibaut Francois (Canyon CLLCTV) of Spain enjoyed his first season in the U23 ranks. He gained vital experience for the future and picked up several top-20 results throughout the long season. 

Talented race prospect and ex-track and field athlete Laani Davis dipped his toes firmly into off-road racing with several major outings, including the Little Sugar 100K MTB Race, US Pro Cup Vail Lake, and Unbound 100. Laani has made huge strides in just his first full year of mountain biking and off-road racing. 

“Looking forward to the next season, we’ll be pushing harder and smarter. I'm lucky to have so many leaders and innovators in the sport act as mentors and help me along this journey. So many people are gonna be tagged on this post but that’s okay and sorry if I don’t tag ya! You are all important to me. As always, major thanks to my partners for their steady support and belief in what we are building,” he recently wrote on Instagram. 

Finally, Canyon are bidding farewell to Loana Lecomte, who is saying goodbye to the Canyon family. The French rider spent three happy years at Canyon and closed out her final season with another French national championship plus World Cup wins in Mont-Sainte-Anne and Crans-Montana. Thanks for the memories Loane!