Photo report: MTB Junior World Festival Graz/Stattegg 2026

What began as a successful premiere is slowly becoming a tradition: the MTB Junior World Festival in Graz/Stattegg took the next step in its development at its second edition. Around 90 junior women and men from 15 nations started over five race days on four different courses. National teams from the USA, Hungary, Israel, Estonia and Turkey, together with numerous international club teams, created a starting field that has grown significantly compared with the previous year. This makes the only multi-day UCI junior festival exclusively for the U17/U19 age categories increasingly established as a link between youth and elite mountain biking.

While other international championships regularly change their venue, the festival remains permanently rooted in Stattegg. That's precisely what gives the format its appeal: the region around Graz offers within a few kilometers a wide variety of race courses - from rocky cross-country tracks and fast forest sections to the Höllbach Arena and the trails around the Lässerhof. Five races on four different courses demand not only strength and technique, but above all consistency over an entire race week.

The Team Relay continues to have a special character. Unlike classic national relays, the three-person teams may be assembled across countries and must include at least one female rider. It is precisely this idea that defines the spirit of the festival: competition on the course, shared racing beyond that.

For the home crowd this produced probably the most emotional moment of the week. After the short-notice withdrawal of an athlete, Anja Pink moved into the winning team alongside last year’s overall Dutch winner Quinn Schmitz and the Slovak Viliam Balog. With the third-fastest women's lap of the day the Styrian laid the foundation for a convincing relay victory – the first major success with Austrian involvement at this year’s festival.

On the fast short-track course in the Höllbach Arena, it was then the turn of the US national team. Noah Scholnick and Lily Agnew claimed the day's victories and confirmed the strong performance of the Americans throughout the week.

Anja Pink also once again showed strong form. After the relay victory, the Styrian put in a bold race to finish an excellent fifth and thus kept Austria's colors high in the international elite field.

On the final day, the cross-country race on the course around Lässerhof presented a completely different character. While Eva Terpin was able to celebrate her third victory of the event among the junior women, the Italian Giovanni Bosio prevailed among the junior men.

At least as exciting, however, was the battle for the overall classification. In the women's category the Swede Molly Evaldsson brought her lead safely to the finish and secured the title "Queen of the Festival". Behind her, Jill Schmitz (Netherlands) and Nazife Tuncel (Turkey) took the remaining podium places.

Among the juniors there was, however, a turnaround. Last year's winner Quinn Schmitz lost valuable points due to a mechanical problem and had to let the Slovak Viliam Balog pass. Balog thus won the overall classification ahead of Schmitz and the Estonian Herlen Kajo.

Although international teams dominated the sporting scene, in particular Anja Pink made a strong Austrian impact with the relay win and several strong individual results. Already on the first race day she fought her way up to ninth place despite a flat tire, before she consistently mixed it up with the front-runners over the course of the week. The Stattegg local heroes Kilian Robin and Rafael Seidel also gained valuable international race experience.

Overall standings Junior Women

1. Molly Evaldsson (SWE)
2. Jill Schmitz (NED)
3. Nazife Tuncel (TUR)

Overall standings Junior Men

1. Viliam Balog (SVK)
2. Quinn Schmitz (NED)
3. Herlen Kajo (EST)