The international MTBO season gets underway this week when the Aprèsport European MTBO Championships begin on Thursday in Lithuania.
It also marks the start of the 2025 CX80 MTBO World Cup and includes the European Junior and Youth MTBO Championships.
The first competition at the championships is a mass start, followed by middle, sprint and mixed relay until Sunday. EJMTBOC and EYMTBOC will race long distance instead of mass start and finishes off with a relay on Sunday.
All competitions will be held in a park/forest area west of the center of the Lithuanian capital Vilnius, which is the host city for the championships. The large area offers a varied terrain, where some days it is hilly and other days it is more flat and fast. The path landscape also changes, but there are quite a few tracks in the close-to urban terrain and off-track riding is generally allowed during the races.
In total, 243 athletes from 20 countries participate in the three championships.
Nearly all the defending European champions are in Vilnius for the championship week:
Finland’s Samuel Pokala, defending sprint champion from the recent championships in Poland and mass start champion from Portugal two years ago, is racing.
Nikoline Splittorff (DEN), who won gold in the women’s class in the same competitions, takes up the challenge too.
From left: Gabriele Andrasiuniene, LTU, Nikoline Splittorff, DEN and Constance Devillers, FRA on the EMTBOC Sprint podium last year in Poland. Photo: Jakub Kijek / EMTBOC 2024
The same goes for Ruska Saarela (FIN), defending middle distance champion, as well as the entire Czech team (Martina Tichovska, Krystof Bogar, Vojtech Ludvik), who won the mixed relay by just one second to the Finns last year, are racing at the European Championships in Lithuania.
Only Andre Haga (FIN) who won the Middle title last year is not participating.
Follow the EMTBOC 2025
The competitions can be followed with live results and GPS tracking every day and the races on Saturday and Sunday will also be live-streamed and can be watched for free on IOF TV.
Linus Rapp is providing the English commentary.
Go to IOF LIVE for live results and GPS tracking
Go to IOF TV for livestream Saturday and Sunday
Follow EMTBOC media: Website – Instagram – Facebook
Photo: Lars Gustafsson
Programme:
European MTBO Championships 2025, 2025 CX80 MTBO World Cup Round 1 and European Junior and Youth MTBO Championships
All times: EEST (UTC +3)
Thursday, May 15
Mass start/Long
10:00 First start (W/M 21)
11:30 First start (W/M 17/20)
Friday, May 16
Middle distance
10:00 First start (W/M 17/20)
11:00 First start (W/M 21)
Saturday, May 17
Sprint distance
10:05 First start (W/M 17/20)
11:00 First start (W/M 21)
Sunday, May 18
Mixed relay/Relay
10:00 First start (W/M 17/20)
11:45 First start (W/M 21)
Top photo: Donatas Lazauskas