Edited Date/Time
6/30/2026 9:41am
Another summertime World Cup is upon us, and the circus returns to the venue of La Thuile, Italy. It's a full-pull event with XC, Enduro and DH. Weather looks exceptional, if not chilly, with sunny skies and highs in the lower to mid 60F range. Downhill takes place on July 4th, and #USDH fans hope the winning continues with at another U.S. rider on the top of the box again this weekend. We've had Asa, Luca, Anna and Aletha so far in 2026!
Entry list below (PDF - may differ from actual qualifying start list). We'll have Vital Fantasy and Pit Bits photos from Rick this week, so stay tuned for those and other updates here.
PDF placeholder - thui_dhi_entries.pdf
Last Year's Vital RAW from La Thuile
This is the midpoint of the Downhill season, race 5 of 9. Here's a look at where things stand:
Notes on Current Elite standings:
This will be the second World Cup Downhill at La Thuile. Here's a brief look at last year:
[I rarely make predictions, but here I'll go out on a limb and say that the women's podium this year will include at least one woman whose last name begins with H. Harriet Harnden had a DNS for Q1 last year but is doing great this year, so she's in the mix along with all 3 of the 2025 podium women.]
That’s as safe as betting that the Tech Rumors thread will be derailed in the next half hour.
Finn for a hat trick.
Ride Companion doing another Rob Warner commentary 🤘
Triple H for women's podium last year!
Coming into Rd 5 I've got a blog post here and it's got an interactive tool you can use to justify your predictions.
https://gravitylab.live/blog03
Concise schedule for this week:
Complete schedule and other race week info available at: https://www.ucimtbworldseries.com/events/la-thuile-2026#schedule
UCI media team confusing the two Italian tracks.
www.instagram.com/uci_mtbworldseries/p/DaQQBqzDNB2/
screenshot of insta post above
Straight down powder?
Bode Burke to the white courtesy phone.
Mr. Burke...destiny calling on line 3!!!
some insta clips of teams hyping the weekend.
wyntv la thuile track walk
caught myself thinking those Gamux bikes look so weird without the extra 15cm of stack and reverse stem and am now entering an existential crisis
charlie coquillard track walk vid
Probably should go in the general race thread but I like Chris from DT’s idea about drop order for finals: 1st seed drops last as always. However, the top 3-5 in the overall (assuming they make finals) 2nd-6th to last. This would first, hopefully make it so some of the faster racers are always toward the end instead of having a situation where someone rides the hot seat from in the 20s. More importantly, it would help build the overall story and provide context for how these runs play into the overall points situation rather than having people in the overall dropping in total random orders throughout the top 30. Anyway, I thought the idea had merit.
Frenchie track walk chat -
Excited to see Oli Clark back!
I am really drawn to zero protection ( ! ) and I enjoy the long hotseat sessions (they’re rare) but I have to agree this idea got an audible “i don’t hate it” from me when I heard it. I don’t think the current setup is bad but I’m pretty into DH racing. If the word is it’d make for a more compelling story to more people I WILL ALLOW IT.
Also: if you’re gonna be the guy who signs the decree banning jr women from hitting a jump, I’m gonna need to see footage of you jumping it.
“Also: if you’re gonna be the guy who signs the decree banning jr women from hitting a jump, I’m gonna need to see footage of you jumping it.”
👆🏻
The natural hat-trick would be sick to see!
Jackson's POV!
Damn!
I'm completely against flipping start order for any petty overall series interest.
Times are so stupidly tight now that 30th can win. It's a FALSE stacking of riders in hopes of building a fictitious momentum. The courses get better sometimes for the last few racers. Sometimes it gets worse for the last few racers.
Fractions of seconds spaced out over a 1, 2, 3 hour time span in variable weather & lighting conditions.
All splitting hairs in the final.
The days of dictating a countdown to fastest run are over. Please stop trying to manufacture a good time I'm capable of having on my own.
Luca nuked everyone in his race run 3 weeks ago on a course where no time could be had & yet Jordan gobbled up nearly 2 full seconds.
Let the racers take the track they EARNED & work it.
Let the weather & soil play it's part.
Don't change the order.
But something has got to be done about the points system. Walking away from a World Cup having qualified and raced a finals in the top 30 over 100 plus racers deserves credit. Someone will lose an overall or a paycheck or a ride because of that.
Teams will dump racers who put up results, got on TV, had their sponsors on screen the world over...and yet on a score sheet, it's as if they never existed.
Moi Moi uncut -
More fairings showing up
I'm not clear on what might need to be done about the points. I tend to think the points system works pretty well. If a male elite rider completes a run in finals he gets at least 31 points just for that. A female elite rider gets at least 30 points if she finishes a run in finals. And any rider who qualifies in Q1 also gets points.
Last year's men's overall came down to the last race in large part because of how consistent Loic Bruni had been all year: He earned 100 or more points in the first 9 races while Jackson Goldstone had 3 races that got him 65 or fewer points.
Timed training Top 15 in each class (sorry, a little OTB on these)
Fast AF raw from practice (as close to lawlor as we'll get : ) riding starts at 1:18
charlie coquillard's practice vid
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