Boichis Wins Short Track Worlds for First Elite Title

Adrien Boichis won his first elite individual world title on Thursday, sprinting to victory in the men's Short Track race at the 2026 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Val di Sole, Italy.

A last-lap ambush under the Dolomites

The race ran at a punishing pace over 11 laps. Charlie Aldridge of Britain took the lead early, with Boichis and Luca Martin shadowing him near the front. Defending champion Victor Koretzky started from the back and never reached the decisive group.

Aldridge launched a searing attack on the final lap that fractured the field. Only Boichis and Martin could follow. The world title was now a three-man contest to be settled by a raw sprint over the closing metres.

Boichis stayed calm on Aldridge's wheel. He surged with one hard effort just before the line, passing the Briton and stopping the clock at 20:32. Aldridge took silver on the same time, while Martin grabbed bronze two seconds later to put two French riders on the podium.

A French succession and a specialising season

The 23-year-old succeeds his compatriot Koretzky, ending a two-year French hold on the Short Track crown. The title confirms his smooth rise from the under-23 ranks, where he was junior world champion in 2021 and U23 world champion the year after.

Boichis arrived in Italy as the most prolific Short Track rider of the 2026 World Cup season, carrying three victories into the championship. The result extends a hot late-summer run that saw him win both the Short Track and the Olympic cross-country at Les Gets the week before.

A French generation that once orbited Koretzky now rallies around a new name, one who decided the biggest short race of the year with a single, cold-blooded move in the Dolomites.