The Enduro World Series is dead, long live the UCI Mountain Bike Enduro World Cup. EWS gets a UCI Rainbow call-up, renamed EDR for the 2023 racing season, joining the current DHI, XCO, XCC & XCM disciplines to round out a broader series of elite mountain bike racing. But that’s not all that’s changing for UCI MTB. Starting with the 2023 season, DH racing adds a third Semi-Finals run to boost rider visibility on the big stage…
J-M EWS racing photos by Phil Rodham – Digital Downhill
Joining DHI downhill, XCO cross-country Olympic-distance, XCC cross-country short-track & XCM cross-country marathon, now EDR enduro gets elevated to a top-tier elite mountain bike race series on the UCI MTB World Cup. The current EWS breaks down all the changes, of what will become new one-day race events under the UCI EDR name…
“New at each round of enduro racing at the 2023 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup will be a points system for each timed Special Stage. An overall classification according to points won will decide the order of riders for the last Special Stage, with the rider who has accumulated most points setting off last.
E-Enduro (E-EDR) follows the same principle but the courses will be slightly different, including challenging technical climbs suited to the attributes of an enduro E-mountain bike.
The integration of enduro and E-enduro into the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup is another development for the discipline since the UCI’s partnership with ESO Sports and Discovery Sports Events, two of WBD Sports Europe’s specialist sport organisations. The integration of XCM into the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup programme and the introduction of Under 23 categories for the XCC were announced in September.“
UCI DHI Semi Finals
In a move to increase rider & racing exposure, the UCI is also adding a new Semi Final round for DHI racing, at each World Cup. The newly broadcast third round of racing – in between the previous Qualifiers & Finals – will significantly increase screen time for elite downhill racing, and mean that riders who don’t make it through to the finals will still get a shot at exposure.
In the new Semis, the fastest 60 Elite Men and fastest 15 Elite Women from qualifiers will advance to the new second round of racing, which the UCI will broadcast. Then, the top 30 Men and top 10 Women will advance once more, and race an additional third run for the Finals to decide the winners. The UCI says their aim is then to broadcast these 40 final Elite DHI runs in their entirety on their distribution partner Warner Bros. Discovery’s various platforms.
Also, thanks to a boost in participation in recent years, the DHI Junior Women will now get Qualifiers, with the top 10 young riders advancing to the Finals. And the DHI Junior Women & Men will also have their racing broadcast for the first time this season.
The full 2023 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup calendar will be published next week, in the 3rd full week of December.
