What's Happening With World Cup Mountain Bike Racing in 2024 and Beyond?

Today I’m joined by Ben and James from Misspent Summers to talk about what’s going on in enduro and downhill world cup mountain bike racing. Between us, we’ve experienced both disciplines online and on-site this season, so we thought we’d get together to share our thoughts on the coverage and the racing. We also wanted to cover some of the more persistent rumours that are floating around right now about the potential changes to downhill racing in 2025.
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[@88mark]

Carlson a significant improvement on comms, they need to accept Ric hasn't worked and back Carlson. I like the addition of an injured or guest rider in the booth, but agree the dynamic doesn't always work so potentially that should be a third person supplementing an established duo. And commentators need to be working in their first language, Cedric's English is great but it wasn't sufficient to harness his energy in a live broadcast.

[@scottkeir1060]

100% agree with what you have posted here 👍

[@VV-iq6sh]

On the Eurosport app there are two live streams. One has the interviews during race runs, the other does not.

[@simonadams4807]

My idea to limit numbers at the weekend is to have a set no selected to race via uci points. Say top 100 then have a small number as wild card entries at each round. This would then allow injured riders to come back and local pinners to get experience and get in front of the bigger teams.

[@88mark]

Live feed for enduro needs to step up, it's pointless at the moment. Needs an easy to use decent live timing system with text updates and video clips from each stage. Just stick an intern at the bottom of each stage to find out what happens - at the moment someone can drop out of top 5 and you have no idea why.

[@alanmartinezrodriguez884]

I really hope next year there are no semis and no protected riders. The former should help riders to prevent injuries and maximize their energy for the finals; and the second should provide up and comers with more chances of qualifying and contribute to fairness. Also, and in regard to the broadcast, the interviews in the mids of a run are just terrible, and to cut parts of a rider's run (not one but many) is blatant disrespect for the athlete and viewer. Hopefully they work on these things and others.

[@88mark]

I feel for unprotected riders at present because semis meaning they need to put together 2 strong runs just to make the final. If semis are to be replaced by LCQ then it could be cool to see protected riders into that but no guaranteed final place More rounds would make dropped protection feasible. In the current season length it'll never happen because a quali mistake could cost a rider the season. More races would allow for a bad round.

[@edhaythornthwaite2584]

Is Winder's van ever not broken down?

[@brucesavory3257]

Where is the Enduro World Champs??? It was actually never mentioned, just that it’s at a ‘good resort’

[@parkinphotography1]

Canazei, Val Di Fassa, Italy.

[@stephen_hughes]

Laughable that anyone thinks DH / Enduro racing is in a good place right now, far too many folk seeing round signs and lining their own pockets as much as possible.

[@jasonwilmshurst8028]

If Ball knows the scene so well why is he doing his best to wreck the sport. Whether you see it or not he's taking the sport the wrong why. He has killed Enduro and is doing his best to wreck DH as well. He has no communication skills at all.