In black, with an unknown bike and winning: this is how difficult it is to reach the XCO World Cup for a cyclist without a team

The story of Maximilian Brandl (28) at the beginning of 2026 is far from the usual within the elite circuit. Without a team, without a structure, and competing with last season's equipment with thousands of kilometers, the German has had to practically rebuild his season from scratch to be able to line up at the XCO World Cup.

Maximilian Brandl's Effort to Reach the XCO World Cup Without a Team

After the disappearance of the Lapierre team at the end of 2025, Brandl was forced to start the year as a private rider, despite having a valid contract. The victory in La Nucía was the first indication that, even in that context, he remained competitive. However, that winning image concealed a complex reality, with completely improvised logistics and a training bike from the previous year as his only tool.

From that point on, his season has turned into a parallel race outside the circuit. Brandl himself now explains that the good start allowed him to open new avenues and begin closing deals that have shaped his independent project in 2026. Among them, the entry of Sanct Bernhard Sport in nutrition and the bike brand Avona, which joins other minor supports he already had. Avona is a relatively new brand backed by Jonas Müller (formerly with BMC, DT Swiss, and Santa Cruz) and Max Koch (formerly with ARC8 and Faserwerk), and their MTB bike is the Silva, a very lightweight XCO with a very particular suspension system that will surely remind you of the ARC8 Evolve FS.

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However, this growth in support has not simplified the process. The German acknowledges that the organizational burden has been enormous, especially while trying to maintain training levels in the midst of the German winter and recover positions in the UCI ranking after a 2025 marked by injuries and illnesses.

The key to redirecting his sporting situation came with a risky decision. Together with his coach, Fabian Neunstöcklin, who was also Alessandra Keller's coach, he opted to travel to Serbia to compete in the Serbia Epic, a block of four races over four days with UCI points. There, in addition, he debuted practically without adaptation with his new bike, the Avona Silva, received just four days before the trip. But Brandl won all four events and accumulated 180 points that allowed him to climb 25 positions in the world ranking. A crucial boost in his goal of securing participation in the short track of the first World Cup event.

Even so, the points system played against him weeks later, just as we saw in Blevins' case. The loss of points accumulated in 2025 forced him to continue competing to avoid being left out. His next stop was Drozdovo, in Slovakia, in an HC category event. There, on a course not favorable to his characteristics, he achieved a third place that awarded him 60 more points.

In total, Brandl has accumulated 316 points in a few weeks, a remarkable effort considering that he has had to balance competition, training, and managing his own project. Currently, he appears around 51st place in the UCI ranking, although the forecast is that, when discounting under-23 riders and absences, he may access the short track grid of the first World Cup next week.

The next step is already defined. The German will travel to South Korea with the national team of Germany to compete in the first round of the UCI Mountain Bike World Series 2026, where he will also seek to accumulate key points for Olympic qualification towards Los Angeles 2028.

His case reflects a little-visible reality in elite mountain biking. Even established riders can find themselves without a structure from one day to the next and be forced to compete under conditions very different from those of their direct rivals. In Brandl's case, that scenario has not hindered his performance, but it has turned every result into an essential piece to sustain the entire season.