Photo Report MTB Junior World Festival Graz 2025

21.07.25 10:36 4612025-07-21T10:36:00+02:00Text: NoMan, PM (translated by AI)Photos: gruberndWhen the drums thunder, the chainsaws roar, and the voices shout, it's festival time in Graz once again. After the Youth European Championship, the Bikeclub Stattegg reinvented mountain biking once more and this year organized, for the first time, an MTB racing week exclusively for junior riders.21.07.25 10:36 4792025-07-21T10:36:00+02:00

Photo Report MTB Junior World Festival Graz 2025

21.07.25 10:36 4792025-07-21T10:36:00+02:00 NoMan, PM (translated by AI) grubernd

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When the drums thunder, the chainsaws roar, and the voices shout, it's festival time in Graz once again. After the Youth European Championship, the Bikeclub Stattegg reinvented mountain biking once more and this year organized, for the first time, an MTB racing week exclusively for junior riders.21.07.25 10:36 4792025-07-21T10:36:00+02:00

As a platform to meet peers, create synergies, and gain valuable competition experience as well as UCI points, it addresses the exact point where many young talents leave the sport: the transition from the U17 to the U23 category. The event is therefore aimed at athletes who still have time to grow and further develop their skills, and in its first year, it not only provided them with the opportunity to experience a true season highlight but also to engage with the four predefined core values in a sporty and socially inspiring atmosphere:

Believe – Believe in yourself, your path, and your potential.
Connect – Connect with others, share experiences, and grow together.
Rise – Through sport, you can grow – every race, every experience takes you further, whether on the bike or in life.
Enjoy – Because cycling should always mean joy, freedom, and adventure.

„The bike club does what is necessary for the sport and valuable for tourism. We are taking the hard road and building something new from the ground up. This five-day festival format is designed to be long-term and aims to bring increasing sporting and tourist value creation to the Graz region and Styria in the coming years,“ says mastermind Jürgen Pail.

We do what is athletically necessary and touristically valuable.
Organization manager Jürgen Pail from the Bike Club Stattegg

With five races within five days, the schedule between July 8 and 12 was packed, featuring four partially brand-new courses in and around the Höllbach Arena and through the adjacent forests at the foot of the Schöckl.
Eleven nations participated in the inaugural event, competing against but also with each other. In addition to the four cross-country races of varying lengths and categories (C3, C2, C1), the program also included an XC-Team Relay, for which some spontaneously mixed teams were formed. At the end of the week, there were not only many daily winners to celebrate but also the Queen and King of the MTB Junior World Festival, the best across all events. Rosalie Sporn from Germany and Quinn Schmitz from the Netherlands proved to be the fastest in this overall ranking. They were followed by Jola Aelken (GER) and Yoana Valkanova (BUL) among the junior women, and Maximilian Anzböck (AUT) and Dimo Kostov (BUL) among the junior men.

In the end, both participants and the organizing team agreed: We are already looking forward to next year when the spirit of the festival and its values will be carried forward!

View the results

8th July XCO C3

On the new trails at the Stattegg Höllbach Arena, things really got serious for the first time after the
Junior Trophy kids' race the previous Sunday. On the rain-soaked course, the trail was really broken in and partially compacted in small sections. Most of the course proved to be challenging but rain-resistant.
With Rosalie Sporn and Arthur Diffis Herison, the victories went to Germany and France. Anja Pink (Crazy Cross Biker Maria Lankowitz) in second place and Tyrolean Michael Ortner in third delivered a pleasing start from an Austrian and Styrian perspective.

9th July XCO Large C2

In perfect weather, the second day featured what was probably the toughest race of the entire week: a four-kilometer-long circuit with 290 meters of elevation gain, representing almost the complete selection of trails developed by the Bikeclub Stattegg around Lässerhof over the past 20 years! Mostly dried up after the rains, the trails remained challenging – as is typical for Graz – but, of course, also fun.
Local hero Antonia Grangl from Bikeclub Stattegg lived up to her role as the favorite in the junior women's category and triumphed ahead of Jill Schmitz from the Netherlands and opening winner Sporn. In the junior men's category, Tyrolean Michael Ortner won the C2 competition ahead of the previous day's winner and Simon Donner from Germany.

July 10 XCR Team Relay

On Thursday, alongside sprint strength and riding technique, it was also about tactics and teamwork: the relay competition was on! In teams of three, with at least one woman, the young talents took to the start line, in line with the philosophy and vision of the Junior Festival, often in nationally and sometimes wildly mixed groups.
The team from LRV Lower Austria, reinforced by a Dutch junior, managed to secure second place after a hard-fought battle between two purely German teams - VC Darmstadt and B&W Merida Team. The local Styrian favorites Anja Pink (Crazy Cross Biker) and Felix Prünster (Junior Cycling Graz) were also at the start and stepped in for various teams where needed.

July 11 XCO Short C3

Short and snappy was the Friday program, during which the new trail sections in the Forstwald near the Höllbach Arena came into play again – and were met with great enthusiasm.
Finally, the previously unwell Stattegger Maks Maunz was able to join the action – and secured an impressive home victory! With his commanding performance and leadership from the start, the local hero set the arena on fire. Among the junior women, Lower Austrian Anabel Hutter proved to be the best athlete from a red-white-red perspective with a fourth-place finish. The fastest of the day was once again Rosalie Sporn from Germany.

12th July XCO C1

The crowning finale was an Olympic Cross Country race in the C1 category. And, as the organizer not-so-secretly hoped, local heroes also shone on the podium: Maks Maunz claimed a dominant victory ahead of Simon Donner (GER). Felix Prünster from the Junior Cycling Team Graz surprisingly took third place. Stattegg native Antonia Grangl was only defeated by the reigning European Champion Maruscha Serkezi from Slovenia. Behind them, Jill Schmitz (NED) completed the podium.