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Nah...I'm not shitting on the best of a generation at a one day winner take all race. Just like at World Champs, no one is getting in the way of the contenders. Because at National Championships or at World Champs, 2nd place is the same as last place. Literally no one else matters.
I've never considered myself bigger than the race for 1st. National Champs format has got to change to apparently protect racers from that very thing.
I don't really buy the idea that Gwin was “impeded.” He started where he started just like everyone else. That’s racing. We dropped protected status from World Cups for a reason, and I don’t think it makes sense to bring it in here either. Seeding matters. The whole race weekend matters. If you mess it up, you deal with the consequences like anyone else be it riding through dust, having a weather affected run, whatever. It's not just a one run race it is a whole weekend from track walk, line choice, practice, quali/seeding, and a race run. You've got to put the whole thing together to win.
some of the insta posts here. looking good!
Witek may have a reputation for being difficult to deal with, but dude can crank out some amazing projects.
Dirt covered drop is a interesting choice, hopefully it’s a dry race.
Hollow, round lift tower poles intended for weight distribution of cable systems being used as an oversized ramp structure?
Did not have that on my 2025 BINGO card.
Hard MTB League has just announced there's $100k up for grabs in 2026 with a new video detailing the event, vision and concepts. Stoked to see it continue forward. Check the video and see the press release with info below.
Their words below:
$100K Up For Grabs at Hard MTB League 2026
Last month, Hard MTB League announced new funding partner and plans for continued growth—which includes a staggering $100,000 prize purse for the 2026 event, and continued growth for 2027 and beyond.
Watch the video above to go behind-the-scenes to find out more about how this new format of mountain bike racing is becoming a reality.
What is Hard MTB?
4 COURSES:
Hard MTB League is designed to be different than any traditional form of mountain bike course in existence today with out-of-the-ordinary obstacles on every one of the four courses:
1. Trail–Technically-challenging rhythm sections with multiple options of timing and jumping
2. Slalom–Raw terrain with off-camber logs in turn apex, etc.
3. Downhill–Gnarly hybrid of rockgardens and log-drop sections
4. Climb–punishingly difficult to ascend without dabbing
RACE FORMAT:
Each course = ~30 seconds to complete
Lowest combined time = overall winner
In 2025, a dedicated selection committee will invite the most skilled all-mountain riders for a head-to-head showdown across multiple disciplines of technical, high-intensity riding.
2025:
October 20-21 — Women’s Camp
October 22-25 — Hard MTB Kick-off Celebration & Invitational Race
December 15 — 2026 Course Reveal
2026:
May 19-23 — Qualifier
June 2-6 [Under 18] — Development Camp
June 9-13 [19+] — Development Camp
Oct. 20-24 — Finals w/$100K Prize Purse
2027:
Spring TBD — 2027 Course Reveal
Fall TBD — Finals w/$100K+ Prize Purse
Check out highlights from the 2024 Hard MTB League "Test Event".
For more information, to submit an entry for 2026 events, visit HardMTBLeague.com.
Follow Hard MTB League on Instagram.
It's an easy fix. Instead of seeding it's qualifying and no protected riders. Top 60 qualify to finals. With less riders to cram into finals each rider can have 1 minute gaps (or more) and much lower chance of catching a slow rider if you happened to have a poor qualifier run.
Nationals are important and should come with a qualifying run to narrow down the field.
Vital RAW NW Cup Snoqualimie - rough and rowdy! How about JT Fisher on the Yeti enduro bike destroying?
And yet they won't do that because then you can't sell enough entry fees to fill the venue.
To further clarify, as a former podunk race director, I've stuffed an extra 30 seconds between riders. Gentlemen's agreement easily broached at the top. We always did it for safety because having a pro run over a joe pro mid-run was bad business.
Not saying such a formal setting would EVER intentionally courtesy ghost Dak & AG. But if they oopsie'd a ghost in there & wound up winning, I guess Pinky or someone would get screwed.
But to all the local pros of the world, DH doesn't need any Vince Friese's on course. Take a bow into a cactus if you must. :D
The format of these still doesn't really make sense to me.
30 second long courses are just too short. All the courses just seem too man made. Like the lame XC courses used at certain venues. Made for TV but just not the real deal.
Good question, I guess because if I were to run one mud and one dry tire I think the traditional wisdom is to put the mud tire in the back for straight-line braking in loose conditions. The biggest downsides of mud tires are the rolling resistance and sketchy-ness on slippery hard surfaces due to the tall square knobs, so it's easier to manage a rear tire that's sliding on slippery rocks and roots than a front tire.
The format is too essentially put a small trail center in diffirent communities. Have the pro guys send it and then anyone can come ride it. Basically they have created a race that can go anywhere with 150-250 ft of vert and maybe an acre or two of land. I’m sure they can use the same format anywhere that can offer more vertical and space. But the fact the format can be applied to such a huge range of locations is brilliant. Sure it’s not a ultra pure form of mtb. But is an ultra accessible one. And the goal seems to be more about accessibility for both pros and fans than having an ultra high end event.
The new high roller isn’t a pure mud tire though, it’s an intermediate tire. If you haven’t ridden it, it’s surprisingly good in hardpack. I’d run it all summer long if you have any dusty conditions on your local trails. Probably more of a tire chat thing though.
Track looked so sick! J.T. was killing it on the trail bike, and I loved the lost shoe at 5:43 and homie running it into the finish line near the end. Stoked there's a new legit DH venue in the NW. And nice vid, Matt!
man, that's a great park, seeing some of those lines on L&F were impressive.
My fav part was the camera following bike runner's agonizing journey to the absolute last second.
Reece Wilson Update: Look at his Instagram Feed to see pics that are not for a weak stomach.
Check his IG stories for the back story.
IG pics are NSFW if we're playing by old school forum rules. 🤯
WBD Whoop UCI MTB Series reporting their viewing metrics for 2025 so far in the PR below. I try to add some personal insights after.
The 2025 WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series has so far attracted 56 million cumulative views and 15 million watch hours across WBD channels, supported by strong digital, on-site, and content engagement.
6th August 2025 – Record-breaking broadcast performances, significant digital engagement, and over 250,000 passionate fans attending in person have marked the first 11 rounds of the 2025 WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series — powered by a reimagined promotional and coverage strategy from Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) Sports.
Chris Ball, Vice President of Cycling Events at WBD Sports, said: “All the successes we’ve seen so far this season have truly justified our work in partnership with the Union Cycliste Internationale, riders, teams, venues and partners. The radical changes to the racing in 2025, including the new, high drama Q1 and Q2 format in downhill, combined with an entirely new approach to mountain bike professional team structure and the creation of the new UCI Mountain Bike World Series Teams is proving successful across the board.
“When we became the first global promoters of the discipline, our ambition was clear — to harness the scale of our global broadcast, streaming, and digital platforms to engage millions and elevate mountain bike to new heights all the way from on-ground operations to live broadcast innovations. Now in our third season of taking control of the promotion and organisation of the Series, we are thrilled to see that the significant changes we’ve made are working and resonating with fans, athletes and teams around the world.”
RECORD-BREAKING VIEWERSHIP
Innovation has been central to WBD’s ambition in attracting new audiences to mountain bike. WBD has focused on making broadcasts more accessible and engaging, introducing features like heart-rate zones and strain gauges that demonstrate just how physically demanding the races are. It has also added visual elements such as athlete headshots, race bike images, team logos and colours, national flags, and career stats for past UCI World Cup winners to additionally increase awareness and enhance team and athlete exposure.
So far this season, millions of viewers across the globe have enjoyed live and on-demand coverage of the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series on linear and streaming on WBD’s channels and platforms (HBO Max, Eurosport, discovery+ and TNT Sports), with 56 million cumulative views and 15 million watch hours.
This includes WBD’s most-watched WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series round to date, with Val di Sole – Trentino (Italy) amassing nearly 15 million cumulative views on WBD channels— surpassing the previous record set in Nové Město Na Moravě (Czechia) in 2023 (+15.4 per cent).
CONNECTING WITH FANS BEYOND THE LIVE
WBD’s 360-degree ecosystem expands storytelling beyond the live broadcast, telling every story on and off the track through extensive digital and social coverage and the creation of new, non-live mountain bike content.
The WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series social media channels have continued to bring fans closer to the action and riders, and at the same time attract new fans to the discipline. This season, there have been 225 million total video views and 11 million total engagements across TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, with the social media teams posting more content to more fans than ever before.
The official WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series website has also continued to play an integral role, providing news, updates and event information to users from across the world. It has received 1.7 million total page views since the start of the 2025 series, and the live timing feature on race weekends has continued to be one of the largest drivers of traffic throughout the season – particularly during UCI Enduro World Cup rounds.
WBD has demonstrated its commitment to off-road cycling content with the launch of two new, original WBD-produced programmes – Grit and Glory: Enduro Mountain Bike Racing and Race Bikes.
The first is an eight-part, behind-the-scenes docuseries that follows all seven rounds of the 2025 UCI Enduro World Cup, giving viewers an exciting and intimate glimpse into the world of professional Enduro mountain bike racing. Race Bikes meanwhile takes a deep dive into the sport’s fastest machines, focusing on the mountain bikes that redefined what was possible, brought the whole sport forward and allowed the world’s best riders to achieve the seemingly impossible.
STRONG ON-SITE ATTENDANCE
At the heart of it all though of course are the UCI World Cup rounds themselves and the unparalleled race-day experience. From the opening rounds in Araxá, Minas Gerais (Brazil) to Pal Arinsal (Andorra), over 250,000 fans have lined the courses of iconic and new venues alike, creating a vibrant and electric atmosphere that’s been felt both trackside and by viewers around the world.
Thanks to a ground-breaking long-term partnership between WBD Sports and the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), in 2023 almost all major mountain bike formats were unified under a single brand for the first-time, creating the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series.
The action continues in Haute-Savoie (France) with the UCI Enduro World Cup in Morillon (22-24 August) and Cross-country and Downhill racing in Les Gets (28-31 August).
*Figures from January 1st – August 1st 2025
------------------end of PR--------------------
I just checked the UCI MTB World Series YouTube channel and since 2015 (i think they used to be Enduro World Series channel and renamed it after the merger), their total views for those 10 years (not just 2025) are 34 million (attached). That's 190m less than their 225m claimed social views. I would figure that Instagram, Tiktok and FB account for social views, too and who knows what a random viral post can account for.
Of their 11 events so far, WBD says 56m cumulative views across on their paid platform channels. Val di Sole is claimed to have 15.4m of those views. On Max (how I watch), Val di Sole has 8 different broadcast shows (DH, XC, XCC races broken into elite women, elite men and junior classes). that averages 1.925m per show for VDS.
VDS views on the World Series YouTube Channels
Elite Men's XCO Highlight - 145k views // Elite Women XCO Highlights - 74k
Elite Men DH Highlights - 210k // Elite Women DH Highlights - 65k
Junior Men DH Highlights - 45k // Junior Women DH Highlights - 19k
Elite Men's XCC Highlight - 70k views // Elite Women XC Highlights - 51k
They are claiming their paid channels have significantly more views than the highlight shows on the most popular (and free) streaming platform in the world.
Hahaha
"They are claiming their paid channels have significantly more views than the highlight shows on the most popular (and free) streaming platform in the world." @sspomer, well put.
I agree, this reporting seems off. Anecdotally, most people I know now ONLY watch the highlights because its free. Which is a shame because the racing has been bonkers these last few years.
I wish I could believe these numbers - maybe its true, but my Bugs-and-Fudd-ometer tells me its BS. Literally no one I know subscribed to Max (or whatever) to watch this, and I'm only watching b/c my wife happens to already be subscribed... that's anecdotal & meaningless, sure, but I don't see how WB can be attracting massive #'s when this is hardly promoted. Even in the Sports tab of Max you wouldn't even know DH existed unless you search for it.
Still - the riding has been world class, bc the riders are world class regardless of what Bugs & Fudd are doing... just seems like their numbers look a little fudgy.
WCDH is one of the main reasons that I subscribed to Max last year. I believe I'd let it lapse, before I saw that DH was on there, actually.
Same here, bought Max specifically so I could watch WCDH. I'm not gonna get into the controversy that is the commentary and all that; the racing has been absolutely on fire. Really looking forward to the second half of the season.
@sspomer any chance you can do a survey? Find out who is watching and if so if they are paying? Would be interesting to see how vital forum nerds are getting their wcdh.
Would also be interesting g to see their breakdown of dh vs xc viewers.
Social views will include all social media platforms, long and short form. That 225M social is entirely plausible on that basis.
Reminder: these kind of reach/views stats are actually more important for sponsors (especially non-endemic) rather than core fans as it feeds into paid/earned media views matrix.
In terms of WBD cumulative channel views of racing, with 122M+ subscribers, 15M doesn't seem unreasonable, especially if you factor in clips appearing in other shows etc and if you're applying either YouTube's 30s or Meta's 3s threshold to count as a view.
The smart team managers/owners/sponsorship heads will be building this into pitch decks and getting out to non-endemic companies (where the money is) to show how MTB is a VERY cheap route to WBD sport fans eyeballs vs football, motorsport etc.
@andyjr77 - i did say, "I would figure that Instagram, Tiktok and FB account for social views, too and who knows what a random viral post can account for." - no doubt those platforms add up in different ways. the value a sponsor sees in those is beyond me. i realize the marketing person reporting numbers can make them sound impressive to the bosses, but do those "views" move a needle when it comes to actually selling a product? i don't know.
IMO the paid platform broadcast views vs youtube views is the real crux of the discussion. the numbers they claim vs the numbers we can see publicly are miles apart. youtube has 2.5B active monthly users (compared to the 122m paid platform audience), yet their highlight shows #'s are exceptionally lower than the paid channels. if i was a brand paying in, i'd be extremely curious about these stats.
In the 10+ years I spent in sports media advertising sales, I reckon the one lesson that made more impact on my career than anything was "make the marketing manager look like a god". The gap between marketing and end unit sales is always hazy at best with lots of external factors. So the trick to a good client relationship was always creating flagship numbers tgat made the MM look awesome to their board. If tgat didn't translate to sell in/through, that's easily attributed to sales teams or sales channel partners (ie bike shops in this case): "we generated all these eyeballs & impact, and you failed to convert it".
It's a nefarious game all based on BBB (bullsh*t baffles brains) and frequently, very little reality. Glad I out of that world now! But at the same time, it's interesting to see it play out from the other side these days 👍
"... the live timing feature on race weekends has continued to be one of the largest drivers of traffic throughout the season..."
Translation: "In fact, now that that's the primary source of fan engagement for things like Timed Training, Qualifying for both Elite and Juniors, and Juniors Finals, we're seeing record numbers across all demos, especially among the sought-after affluent 60+ age group who vividly recall the glory days of the Radio Era when they no longer needed to wait for tomorrow's newspaper for up-to-the-minute news!"
All views aren't created equal...
https://www.yumyumvideos.com/blog/what-counts-as-a-view/
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