UCI & Warner Bros. Discovery Release 2023 World Cup and EWS Calendar
After a long wait and many unknowns about the 2023 season under Warner Bros. Discovery we now have a look at the 2023 calendar.
The 2023 calendar features both EWS and World Cups racing across 15 rounds covering 34 races across 10 countries and 3 continents. The season will see fan-favourite venues return alongside some fresh locations. Interestingly the schedule sticks to Enduro mostly being held separately with only two rounds with XC, EWS and DH racing at the same location. There is one round that will feature both EWS and DH racing at a currently unconfirmed French venue.
While the press release headlines 15 rounds in 2023 we will actually only see eight DH races (nine including World Champs), nine XC/XCC races (10 including World Champs) and eight EWS rounds. The whole of July and most of August sees no racing as the press release states a mid-season break was given to riders.
DH
9-11 June - Lenzerheide, Switzerland
15-18 June - Leogang, Austria
30 June-2 July - Val di Sole, Italy
August - World Champs, Fort William, Scotland
23-27 August - Vallnord, Andorra
1-3 September - TBC, France
7-17 September - TBC, France
28 September-1 October - Snowshoe USA
6-8 October - Mont-Sainte-Anne
9-11 June - Lenzerheide, Switzerland
15-18 June - Leogang, Austria
30 June-2 July - Val di Sole, Italy
August - World Champs, Fort William, Scotland
23-27 August - Vallnord, Andorra
1-3 September - TBC, France
7-17 September - TBC, France
28 September-1 October - Snowshoe USA
6-8 October - Mont-Sainte-Anne
EWS
25-26 March - Maydena, Tasmania
1-2 April - Derby, Tasmania
3-4 June - Finale Ligure, Italy
15-18 June - Leogang, Austria
24-25 June - Val di Fassa, Italy
1-3 September - TBC, France
7-17 September - TBC, France
TBC - Whistler, Canada
25-26 March - Maydena, Tasmania
1-2 April - Derby, Tasmania
3-4 June - Finale Ligure, Italy
15-18 June - Leogang, Austria
24-25 June - Val di Fassa, Italy
1-3 September - TBC, France
7-17 September - TBC, France
TBC - Whistler, Canada
XC/XCC
5-7 May - Valkenburg, Netherlands
12-14 May - Nove Mesto, Czech Republic
9-11 June - Lenzerheide, Switzerland
15-18 June - Leogang, Austria
30 June-2 July - Val di Sole, Italy
August - World Champs, Glentress, Scotland
23-27 August - Vallnord, Andorra
7-17 Septemebr - TBC, France
28 September-1 October - Snowshoe USA
6-8 October - Mont-Sainte-Anne
5-7 May - Valkenburg, Netherlands
12-14 May - Nove Mesto, Czech Republic
9-11 June - Lenzerheide, Switzerland
15-18 June - Leogang, Austria
30 June-2 July - Val di Sole, Italy
August - World Champs, Glentress, Scotland
23-27 August - Vallnord, Andorra
7-17 Septemebr - TBC, France
28 September-1 October - Snowshoe USA
6-8 October - Mont-Sainte-Anne
One aspect of the calendar that does seem a little strange is that DH racing does not begin until June 9. By that point this year we had already seen two World Cup rounds. The press release does say that an effort was made to group rounds together to limit travelling so hopefully, this means we could see better turnouts from international riders. Although as proven at this year's North American rounds grouping a few races together doesn't always mean that privateers and those not on teams will be able to make the jump around the world for racing.
 | The launch of the 2023 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup and Enduro World Series calendar marks a major step forward in our work to modernise mountain bike, one of our five Olympic disciplines. With the integration of enduro, and soon also of cross-country marathon and E-mountain bike enduro to the events of the calendar, which already includes cross-country Olympic, cross-country short track and downhill, the events will take on a new dimension, bringing together even more athletes and fans. We also look forward to introducing new hosts for some rounds while welcoming back traditional venues that have been greatly appreciated over the years. The partnership between the UCI and Warner Bros. Discovery will significantly increase the international exposure for mountain bike, allowing the sport to continue to grow globally. |
| For the first time all major mountain bike formats align on one calendar, giving teams, athletes and fans new opportunities to experience their favourite racing with no date clashes. We’ve done our best to group venues in close geographical proximity to reduce the season’s travel footprint and increase efficiencies for everyone on the tour. We’ll be hosting new event schedules combining formats that have never been combined before, giving riders a unique new experience and using the very best of the terrain available at each location to provide the best racing on the planet, while of course valued race tracks remain in the calendar. Calendar classics sprinkled with some new venues - 2023 is going to be an incredibly exciting first step towards our long term plans for mountain bike racing worldwide. |
If you are wondering about World Champs it will be hosted at the classic Venue of Fort William for the DH and Glentress for the XC in August.
Original Press Release
- All major mountain bike formats united under a combined calendar for the first time to support the growth of the sport.
- 15 rounds covering 34 races across 10 countries and 3 continents announced for 2023.
- ESO Sports and Discovery Sports Events partnering to deliver the UCI’s new vision for mountain bike.
The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) and Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) have unveiled the new calendar for the 2023 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup and Enduro World Series. The plan unifies all major mountain bike formats under one combined calendar for the first time and will take riders to ten countries across three continents.
As mountain bike enters a new era, riders and fans can look forward to cross-country Olympic, cross-country short track, downhill and enduro, aligning for the first time in the history of the sport. Further details around E-mountain bike enduro and cross-country marathon will be released in September 2022. The new-look calendar will see some mountain bike formats sit alongside one another for the first time, racing grouped by location to maximise sustainability and brand new venues making their global debut, while valued sites keep their place in the calendar.
The reinvigorated calendar was developed by the UCI in partnership with ESO Sports and Discovery Sports Events, two of WBD’s specialist sport organisations.
An enhanced and combined calendar to reflect the growth of mountain bike
With 15 rounds covering 34 races organised across the world, the 2023 combined calendar for the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup and Enduro World Series will see action taking place in ten countries across three continents. Cross-country Olympic and cross-country short track each have nine rounds in total, while downhill and enduro each have eight. As well as brand new locations brought into the fold, established venues will welcome new formats onto their trails.
The new structure will reflect the growth of the sport, allowing each of mountain bike’s different formats to flourish, reach new audiences and enhance the experience for fans both on site and watching from home. ESO Sports, the owner and operator of the Enduro World Series (EWS) and in whom WBD recently invested, will drive the project to globally unify mountain bike and elevate it to new levels, in collaboration with the UCI. Discovery Sports Events, the global promoter and event management leader, is extending its relationship with the UCI to help promote the sport in support of further growing its global audience.
UCI President David Lappartient said: "The launch of the 2023 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup and Enduro World Series calendar marks a major step forward in our work to modernise mountain bike, one of our five Olympic disciplines.
"With the integration of enduro, and soon also of cross-country marathon and E-mountain bike enduro to the events of the calendar, which already includes cross-country Olympic, cross-country short track and downhill, the events will take on a new dimension, bringing together even more athletes and fans.
"We also look forward to introducing new hosts for some rounds while welcoming back traditional venues that have been greatly appreciated over the years. The partnership between the UCI and Warner Bros. Discovery will significantly increase the international exposure for mountain bike, allowing the sport to continue to grow globally.”
Chris Ball, CEO of ESO Sports, said: “For the first time all major mountain bike formats align on one calendar, giving teams, athletes and fans new opportunities to experience their favourite racing with no date clashes.
"We’ve done our best to group venues in close geographical proximity to reduce the season’s travel footprint and increase efficiencies for everyone on the tour. We’ll be hosting new event schedules combining formats that have never been combined before, giving riders a unique new experience and using the very best of the terrain available at each location to provide the best racing on the planet, while of course valued race tracks remain in the calendar.
"Calendar classics sprinkled with some new venues - 2023 is going to be an incredibly exciting first step towards our long term plans for mountain bike racing worldwide.”
Racing gets underway in March with an enduro double-header in Tasmania, Australia, first in new venue Maydena, followed by Derby.
Limburg-Valkenburg in the Netherlands makes its UCI Mountain Bike World Cup debut when it kicks off the cross-country season, with classic venue Nové Město na Moravě in the Czech Republic hosting the second round of the cross-country.
The races come thick and fast in June, with enduro heading to its spiritual home in Finale Ligure, Italy, followed by cross-country and downhill in Lenzerheide, Switzerland.
From here it’s on to a huge week of racing in Leogang in Austria as, cross-country, downhill and enduro all take to the region’s famous mountains and converge at the same venue for the first time. Enduro then heads to Val di Fassa Trentino in Italy, while cross-country and downhill make their way to Val di Sole Trentino, Italy.
July and August will see an extended break from racing, allowing the athletes some time to rest and recover mid-season ahead of the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships which take place in Glasgow and across Scotland (Great Britain) in August.
Racing then picks back up again at the end of August with cross-country and downhill heading to Vallnord Pal Arinsal in Andorra. All mountain bike formats then come together in France.
The final racing block takes place in North America. Snowshoe in the USA will serve as the penultimate round for cross-country and downhill, before the iconic surrounds of Mont-Sainte-Anne in Canada rounds out the season.
A new vision for mountain bike
As the UCI starts to deliver its new vision for the future of mountain bike, the organisation will seek to utilise WBD’s global scale and media platforms, whilst it has begun collaborating with the two WBD specialist organisations. ESO Sports is working in partnership with Discovery Sports Events to deliver the organisation, media production and broadcast, promotion and commercialisation of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup.
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Possibly bring ski bikes! Also hoping the late start to the DH season is just a one-time thing.
DHi starts in June so that Red Bull can have their own championship in the first half of the year!
Temperature in october at MSA can range from freezing to +25C. I'd says chances are very good to have excellent racing condition.
But for guys outside europe, I completely understand the frustration + there's so much to discover outside the "classical" european terrain
I can see that Europe makes sense for the riders and teams. Lots of locations that are close together but still in a variety of countries to give different riders and fans a chance to have a "home" race. I think before you talk about adding more remote destinations to the tour you'd want to get the riders to actually attend the ones we have. Maybe get the prize money up for the north american stops to a level where more riders make the trip because right now a lot of them are staying home.
(I know you meant South Korea.
It's not important that a sport has many hobby athletes to sell equipment to, it's only important whether there are enough willing to watch the ads shown at the venue and on TV
There’s also a great big inflatable cow at each race. That’s gotta be $1 billion right there
A second consideration is national Federations wanting their piece of the pie. Typically only a single World Cup per country is on the schedule because the national racing Federations scream bloody murder about a country having more than one WC race. Having a world cup in MSA and then in Whistler would cause just as much of a behind the scenes ruckus as the MSA/Bromont races a decade or more ago. I can't help but notice, though, that France has two EWS and DH events that overlap, both TBC.
There's also the fact that Whistler has had multiple opportunities to host a WC in the past two decades and has failed to deliver every single time. The two races held at Grouse Mountain 20 years ago, for example, only happened because Whistler was originally on the schedule but bailed out at the last minute. As much as the UCI would love to be at Whistler, they don't exactly trust Whistler.
Additionally to be logistically viable, that would have to be a race on the west coast of the US, too, and I am uncertain of a venue with the appropriate infrastructure this side of Tahoe. Maybe Sun Valley? Maybe Whitefish, Montana.
And then to be financially viable, there would have to be a three-year contract, otherwise no promoter will touch it. Why 3 years? Typically the first year will operate as a loss. The second year will usually see the promoter break even. But the promoter likely won't show a profit until the third year.
Personally, I think we have a better chance of Striking it rich in Las Vegas than seeing Whistler host a World Cup anytime soon.
Keystone could but the owners (Vail) have basically forgotten the bike park. Shame, it's gnarly and they could probably get a good track going.
Angelfire and Durango held WCs in past. From what I've heard, leadership at both places isn't interested.
Having to cut a $100k check to the UCI is an impediment to many of good but smaller parks in the US.
RedbullTV, a HUGE thank you for all you have done to grow DH and XCO with your spectacular free to view coverage, you guys/girls are awesome.
UCI “new vision” “modernization” it’s the same venues. No races in South America, whistler, western US, UK/Scotland, Africa, NZ, or Australia. Two races in the same country. Very disappointing.
Would be a fun race commentary for sure, just give each a six pack of beer to enjoy while racing... Done!
Either way, going to miss Rob. Fingers crossed for Eliot.
I for one am really looking forward to see al other changes after seeing this calendar. All ready crossed out the Leogang dates for next year.
With regards to scheduling, I remember this year there was a lot of grumbling at the start of the year about the scheduling. Things like how stupid to be in France so early, conditions will be shit of course, there's a 3-4 week gap between each of the first three races, riders had a month off of racing.. why not just push the start of the season back so we aren't there so early. Now they did, everyone complains about that.
So far the biggest downside I can see is no Rob, which does suck the big one, but everything else has a decent chance to improve IMO. It's the first year with them taking over, it's not going to be perfect from the start.
The lead guy had to essentially run the broadcast. He does most of the talking, controls the flow of the commentary, transitions in and out of the none live segments, etc. That's a learned skill that Rob had admittedly worked hard at. You can't just throw a random rider into that lead role. They do fine as the secondary analyst because they are mostly taking their cues and questions from the lead guy.
This is the standard format cross almost all sports. Look at the NFL, its always a lead announcer who is generally someone trained in broadcasting like Joe Buck, Jim Nance, Kevin Burkhardt, Al Michaels, Mike Tirico, etc who are then paired with an "analyst" who is most often an ex-player like Aikman, Collinsworth, Romo, Greg Olsen, etc.
It’s going to be a joke dude.
It may very well suck at first because realistically there just arent going to be many professional broadcasters who are familiar with DH racing. But listening to an untrained broadcaster try and work through a broadcast would be just as bad.
also, anyone have any idea what the French venues will be?
I know most on here won't give a flying f**k about road cycling, but that takes all the media interest - why run any major MTB races at the same time?
No offence, but how naive are you? Who do you think pays for racing bikes, or streaming the races. Sponsors, businesses want media interest to sell their products....
I think perhaps Discovery doesnt have the resources to cover both and figured that this would be a good way to arrange things for maximum benefit to themselves. It seems like alot of these corporate sales and take overs are a company coming in and promising things that they cant and have no intention of delivering. Thats how it is in my line of work anyway.
I was in Kenya for a wedding in April and shiiiiiiiiiit, there is some truly incredible terrain there. I would absolutely love to see the WC go and race in the Rift Valley area.
Business is business though and the almighty Dollar/Pound/Euro/Peso/Rand/Riyal/Rupee will always win out
UCI are holding the 2025 road worlds in Rwanda, so not adverse to idea.
It's basically a Shakedown Racket.
Yes, ”world cup” could cover more world. But the venues are almost the same, there are 8 races + champs, Europe US CAN spread. I’m sure we’ll see more over coming seasons.
Keep in mind the more there are continents, the less we see privateers doing serious racing through the season. If the teams have to fly four continents, even they might have to drop a rider or two.
Also, seems very convenient that the season starts after the merger, stops for TdF and track/ road world champs then restarts. Our brave new future seems to involve embracing skinny tyres and lycra during the prime northern hemisphere reaching season...
Give it two years. Viathon will finally get that EWS podium
that's the joke
What a stupid decision. Ice, snow, mud and frozen mud.
Though maybe not in October...
But the calendar is a bit off, no NZ round in EWS after the Tazzy rounds... but two rounds in Tazzy within a week, it is sort of great but also isn't a bit excessive!? Then nothing for EWS riders until June so back to training for them or racing their national or regional series. Then, in June, we finally get DH on the road!! until October at MSA, for my birthday, which is both kinda awesome, but if the weather decides to not play ball, also terrifying; the colors of the fall at MSA are a thing of beauty but if it rains and freezes, I will understand if a majority of riders decide to skip the final round of the season on security/safety grounds.
Then for me, it is more about what's not on this calendar or what should not be on the calendar. As I said no NZ... Rotorua could have been a perfect place to launch the season proper with a MTB festival but at Minimum Nelson for an EWS round should have made the cut EWS could have facilitated the transport. No brazil, in XC which is disappointing after this year showing the race was fun and riders appeared to like it, I don't know if it was good financially but it was nice to have another "continent" in the show. No western United States, no Chile... I get it, organizing an MTB event is not exactly a money-maker thing except that it can be. not for the organizer himself but the town/region generally enjoys a spike in tourism that hotels and restaurants can do with. France and Italy get two rounds each... I know why... but then really!
Finale Ligure is not the final round of EWS... Yup nope! I can't deal... it is in the Name Finale Ligure. it is just awesome terrain and I am certain that it could host all disciplines for a late-season MTB Festival.
The race block strategy is trying to be good but it is not. Some European riders will still skip the north american rounds, while Americans, Australians and others still have no choice but to set up shop in Europe for 5 months or so. It is still not great. Maybe this is a necessary evil for ESO don't change things too much in year 1 of the deal. but so far I see no reason for them to hike the price up based on the calendar.
Now I'm curious to see if Redbull and/or Crankworks will propose an alternative series of 4/5 events
It's a real bummer if they kill it.
And it's easy to bash the UCI, but they're no longer in charge of organising events. Everything is run by the new Promoters, they charge the hosting fee, the calendar.....etc
It's exactly how most motorsport series operate; the governing body just makes sure rules are followed, everything else is run by promoters.
Looong wait until June, then 3 races in 3 weeks.
Imagine a rider hits the deck in the first race and needs to recover 3 weeks - half of the season already over...
Sorry but I think it will be more like :
"This feed is not available in your country"
Looks like my road trip to the highlands next year will either be in August, or I’ll go earlier and just enjoy riding.
Eff that
Shame NZ isn’t back in the EWS calendar. We didn’t need to cancel that. Could have been great to see a regular stop here. Oh well
Apparently Discovery/ESO are going to film the Juniors in DH and Under 23 in XC. Pay Per View will be available if you want to watch without adverts but it will also be on Eurosport.
I'm a lets see what happens kind of guy before I start getting upset about change and Martin does seem to know what he is on about.
They already have a huge offer on the table for Gwin and are trying to sign as many of the top 30 as they can. Huge contracts but still less than what Phil Mickelson loses gambling in a weekend.
Sorry but I think it will be more like :
"This stream is not available in your country"
Maybe Koretzky? ...Jolanda?
Expect the last 3 rounds to get cancelled.
I completely agree about the lack of African (and Asian) rounds though.
It’s going to be epic
But your still stuck with the lack of infrastructure so the fact you could have a track is moot.