World Cup Enduro is Done After 2026

Sad it’s finally dead, stoked for the future. I don’t think enduro as a format is dead, but it needs to go back to people having adventures in cool places.

Interestingly-worded statement.

This might mean "we're changing how we do Enduro" (the UCI has been integral in "cementing Enduro’s place on the sport’s biggest stage" after all!) or "we're not doing Enduro at all and Enduro-the-concept will have to fend for itself and figure itself out for a while we hold the rights to do something with it if it becomes commercially popular again."

I hope the UCI is in negotiations to partner with all the Trans-Somehwere races and elevate those to World Cup status. They already sort of have the method for pulling off the open class portion built in if that's the case.

It's an unbelievably vague press release. My first thought was that they were trying to sugarcoat "We're killing the series forever" in positive-sounding corporate-speak, but on second read it's kind of wishy washy and undefined, like maybe the UCI is exploring ways to offload the series to another organizer or multiple organizers, which is what it was all along until Chris Ball sold it to the UCI. Back in the day, the EWS was mostly a collection of events that were already taking place independent of the UCI, like the SuperEnduro series in Italy or Crankworx Whistler.

After rereading it, the press release reads to me as "We don't know what's going to happen, we don't have a firm plan, and we're still making it up as we go along, but the one thing we know for sure is that neither the UCI nor WBD is going to bankroll an enduro series going forward. So maybe there will be a promoter and a series, or maybe it really is dead. You'll have to wait and see."

I think for the EWC level, the format must go to one day of racing. Yes, that would be limiting, but also possibly easier to prep, monetize and socialize via media. It is just so fragmented right now – too many days, too much spread around and with too many people. We need more little leagues to feed it, not to keep pushing the main event to be the only league. 

Man would be a dream if the ews can partner with 4-5 trans series events and maybe throw in a mega avalanche/ mountain of hell for the heck of it. to see all these athletes compete on blind racing and head to head could make for some crazy racing. 

You mean taking 400 plus field of average EWS and putting it into a race that is already capped at 150 or so? 

Maybe Jeff Brines can help out, but I bet they came to an agreement and paid them a portion of the contract. That or there were opt out clauses. 

This is a sad development. Enduro as a sport changed mountain biking for the better. The fact that we are pedaling durable rigs that are nearly as good as DH bikes is a direct result of the EWS and its effect on mtb culture.

It seemed to be an uphill battle in that the bikes stopped selling, both  because they got to such a good place and [my lawyers have advised me to redact this reason for the death of the enduro bike as a growth sector]. It is a bummer because I will miss the 20 min recaps of a cool race in a cool place. Early season finale highlights hit so good when i was still snowed in and months away from riding. I am confident it will remain the most popular sport to race at the grassroots level, but sad to see the pro event die.

They really went out on a good ending. Glad Dailey got it sucks for Leif being young and up and coming but now no where to go. I was hoping to go to one next summer and do the open category. 

Man, that is a fuckin weird position to take.  Who's going to want to touch the EDR if the UCI/WBD can just wrench it away once it turns a profit? 

In a way I''m really happy that its moving this direction.  Part of the reason I lost interest in following enduro the last few years is it was run at the same venues and times as DH.  The racing moved a lot more to bike park stages rather then big backcountry racing.  Remember when they raced in Chile?  Looked like they were riding on the moon! The stages were monster 12 minutes plus.  Hope we get back to that.  Like others have said, partnering with the trans-x races would be smart.  

UCI killed enduro as if they were private equity firm. The EWS was sick in its early years up until 2022. The highlight videos and race venues 2016ish-2022 were fantastic. UCI turned it into the European bike park series so they could attempt to televise/stream it, assuming because they could generate revenue that way. 

Hopefully we get some kind of mashup between trans-x races and current format, some races with current format and some blind races, but straight up thinking that 1) trans-x race could be somehow organized for 400-500 riders without a gondola/lift is kind of ridiculous 2) elite field racing for 5 days straight when, they are beat up already with the two day racing 3) coverage of that would be even more harder to produce with some kind of timeline after the event.

But hopefully this just opens doors to more exotic and new locations, but having listened Downtimes latest podcast with William Brodie, without proper sponsor support (money) can anyone actually afford to travel these new places, when its already expensive even when all the venues are quite close each other now.

It’s their thing and they’ll do what they want whenever they want. Why make promises, assurances, or apologies? This is Good Business. 

October to March series. Southern hemisphere and places that have milder climates year around.

@jessemelamed got any insights for us?👀

Agreed, the coverage from 2016-2019 was great and never left me wanting more, there was so much coverage back then, including more than enough IG stories where you could watch the action "live" and the ~30min recaps on YT were awesome and no clue why PB stopped doing the "Photo Epic" recaps either. They main appeal back then were all the unique and exotic locations they were going, OZ, NZ, Chile, Madeira. Drool worthy stuff. 

I would regularly throw those recap vids up while riding the turbo trainer during to the winter months and fantasize about riding somewhere other than my cold garage... 

If I had to wager a guess since the uci killed it there are probably zero ramifications on wbd's end. If the uci could've rung some more money out of it at Warner bros expense I'm sure they would've. 

Not to be that guy that responds twice, but I often wondered if and how attention spans and social media played into the demise of the enduro format as well. I remember a decade ago long form photography essays and longer recap videos were the norm and celebrated, I think people's ability to appreciate that kind of content has significantly waned. Obviously that's far from the whole story but I wonder about how it played into it.

Yeah, for me this is exciting. I hope we go back to a true EWS, the travels, tougher days, more day. And seeing Elliot Heap broadcasting the current races I can see a glimmer of hope that this can be so, so good. 
The coverage Jesse Melamed did from the Canadian enduro was heaps better than what has been produced for a long time. The potential is there for sure.

 Ut the “Red Bull Enduro World Series” could be a fantastic happening to ou beloved sport. Beautiful and exciting racing from around the world. Come on, be brave and invest world! Be brave!

I loved that coverage as well.  I much prefer the photo recaps over a video but even then the 20 minute recap videos were great as well.  Don’t know if it was @sspomer but somewhere it was said that those articles essentially got zero traction.  I think Sven said that the photogs are still at all of the edr races but no one is buying the photos.  

Yeah remember when they went literally all over the world, Feb to October to beauiful places with crowds that rarely got to see that level of racing? Maybe we can get a race series again that lets people build or come out from no where. I also wonder if some riders saw it coming and announced retirement while they were at the top this year....

I agree with Jessie Melamed. 

This is an opportunity for some sort of international series to regrow without the pressure of having to answer to a giant corporation about viewership and advertising revenue. 

Seems like there is a new gen of racers really fired up about the format. 

 

I’m envious of your capacity to have any excitement over this news. This tiptop worldwide pro enduro race series is now 0-for-2, where are you gonna get the money? 

Thanks for the reminder to go back and watch this great vid on the SC Enduro Team in Chile and Colombia. 

Apolgy for bad English

Where were u wen EWS die

I was at house watching wyn tv when vital post

"EWS is kil"

"no"

Is there any merit to thinking that maybe the big names quitting last year could have done more than we thought? There are less eye balls and hype because less people know who's actually racing any given weekend. It just seems weird to cancel it so late and not halfway or towards the beginning of the season like they announce DH or XC venues. 

As someone who shot a bunch of those Vital slideshows during the peak EWS years, I recall that being the case too.  For fans of the enduro format the long form coverage was great and the slideshows told a compelling story, especially over two day races.  But for the average viewer or MTB race fan it never really got the same kind traction as DH content, even when the industry marketing and money was moving away from DH in favor of the EWS at that time.

For those of us old enough to remember, the early years of EWS felt to me a lot like the NORBA series in the mid-late nineties. A combination of factors made it feel massively exciting and new, industry and outside money poured in, and for a while it far eclipsed WC DH racing.  But then the bubble burst and we're not likely to ever see a domestic US series like that ever again.  I don't think it's realistic to expect a return to the EWS of 2013-2020 any time soon, if ever, but I do think it's best for whatever comes next to move out from under the traditional UCI XC/DH venue format.

Here's to hoping I'm wrong and the pendulum swings back in the other direction.

Ella Conolly said something very similar on "the other site." I agree and hope, that EWS can rebuild and start going to venues all over the world and reconnect with the supporters. Quite where the money will come from that is another matter, but i hope something can be put together. 

New Zealand, Tasmania, Canada around the same time as Crankworx or Hardline

South America around the same time as the street racing,

Europe, around the same time as street racing, Crankworx, IXS etc. 

Make a festival out of it or just a stand alone event. 

Charlie Murray had similar sentiments to others with regards to a future series in his most recent appearance on the downtime podcast. Link up all the Trans events, maybe MegaAvalanche and Mountain of Hell and one or two larger Domestic Enduro style events of different formats, ensuring both single and multi day races feature (Maydena's Enduro Jam jumps to mind). Let the YouTube / Vlog style content run for the first year or two as the series finds it feet then slowly start to feed in some investment on coverage and the likes. I used to pour all over the Vital slideshows of EWS coverage during the heyday, they had my attention more than anything else MTB related at the time. What was old can be new once again!