2025 Mountain Bike World Cup Series calendar revealed

7 months, 10 Downhill events, 10 Cross-country events and 7 Enduro World Cup rounds. Europe, North America and South America. WHOOP UCI MOUNTAIN BIKE …

By ben_haworth

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Mountain Bike World Cup Series 2025 calendar revealed

Are some of the DH locations new? It was all getting a bit dull and bike parky

No Fort William, Enduro in Europe only and having to use the same venue for two XC rounds a week apart.

I’m heading to the Pinkbike comments section with a big bucket of popcorn for this one!

Offffffft i know Fort William was potentially not happening… but i’m pretty sad it won’t be on the list.

No Fort William – gutted………

So, plus points:

more DH and XC than ever (or at least in the decade I’ve been watching).

Enduro still existing, although wholly in Europe.

Professional ebike racing seems to have disappeared due to poor attendance.

Negative points:

Fort William gone – forever or just rotated out?

Got to buy 8 months of D+ rather than 7 to watch it all.

Questionable team rule changes as per recent MUTN podcast.

Just seen this posted by Nevis Range:

Fort William World Cup: Looking Ahead to New Opportunities
It is with a heavy heart that we announce the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup will not be returning to Fort William in 2025. While this news is deeply disappointing for us and the entire mountain biking community, we would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone involved in the last 20 years, including EventScotland, The Highland Council, and Outdoor Capital of the UK, for their unwavering support over the years. The biggest thanks must of course go to Rare Management whose vision, ambition and dedication brought the event to the Highlands in the first place and gave us over 20 years of World Cups and Two World Championships!
Fort William has long been synonymous with world-class mountain biking, and while we may not be hosting the World Cup next year, we are incredibly excited about the new opportunities that lie ahead. In the coming weeks, we will be unveiling a series of events that promise to capture the spirit and excitement of the World Cup. These events will include four new races in Fort William, to maintain the competitive edge and prestige of the World Cup, these events will bring (collectively) the same volume of fans and competitors; whilst easing the burden on local infrastructure by spreading the events over a longer period.
Our focus moving forward will be on grassroots initiatives aimed at introducing new people to the sport and nurturing Scotland’s next generation of elite athletes. We firmly believe that Scotland and the UK are the beating heart of mountain biking, and we are committed to ensuring that this remains the case.
We wish Warner Brothers every success as they take the World Cup series forward in 2025. However, our journey with the World Cup is far from over. We are already in discussions with Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Highland Council, EventScotland, and the Scottish Government to bring the event back to Fort William in 2026 and beyond. The impact that the World Cup has had on Nevis Range, Fort William, and the surrounding culture is undeniable, creating a mountain biking legacy that rivals any in the world. We are immensely proud to have hosted this prestigious event for 20 years and look forward to its return.
In the meantime, we will be working closely with our incredible partner, Madison, and particularly Saracen Bikes, to deliver outstanding events that bring more young people into the sport. We are dedicated to showcasing the power of biking to bring people together, enhance outdoor experiences, and build stronger communities.
Looking ahead, the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Scotland presents an incredible opportunity to reignite the passion for biking in Scotland. Nevis Range is ideally positioned to host mountain biking events such as cross-country, ensuring that we deliver a spectacle that the entire Commonwealth will remember. We will be engaging in discussions with all the agencies involved to explore how we can turn this vision into reality.
We remain committed to continuing the legacy of mountain biking in Fort William and look forward to sharing more exciting news in the weeks to come.

Hopefully the “grass routes” approach will be something different to look forward too.

Dominic Langan, CEO of Madison, the UK’s largest distributor of cycle parts and accessories, Said…

“This is incredibly disappointing news and somewhat surprising given the significance of the UK mountain bike market, the size and participation of the domestic enthusiast fanbase and not least the last twenty years of successfully hosting the event at Fort William. Fort William has also been previously voted the best Downhill Mountain Bike event in the world by the UCI. Hopefully, this is merely a temporary blip!”

Meh. That’s my general attitude to DH world cup the past 12 months or so.

Attended Fort William event most years since it started so I’ll definitely feel the loss. Not sure what this means for the Nevis Range venue itself – I assumed they benefitted financially from the big event each year, so hope its all OK.

Been covered in many discussions already so not mentioning how I felt about this year’s event.

 

Crankworx Fort William, come on Crankworx you know you want too.

Looking at the schedule, it looks like it has been created for ease of logistics & travel, with several weeks of back to back rounds.

I think it is clear now that OUR sport has been sold out for TV schedules & corporate greed, rather than the sport.

The only hope is that another series or series can evolve to fill the gap left by that greed & for those atheletes pushed out of the top level, to be able to compete elsewhere.

Gutted. I will be boycotting it in protest. Luckily they have made that really easy

Loudenvielle in a drier month could be promising!

The speculation about Whiteface elsewhere on the internet came true. Good that North America gets another weekend, hopefully the track is steeper then the one they used at Killington for the US open.

Mixed feelings about Ft William.

Not having Fort William is one thing, not even having a replacement venue for the UK is bad. And means no UK round of the MTB World Cup – which is a poor reflection for the sport – and off-road cycle racing in general. No XC World Cup, and we can’t get a Cyclocross World Cup.

Considering the success we’ve had off-road in recent years, it’s not a good look.

I understand them wanting to rest Fort William but they could have at least given us an XC world cup at Dalby so there was at least 2 major UK event.

Rubbish news, love Fort Bill.

 

 

 

It isn’t really surprising though, is it? The chat over the last 2 years has been about getting the DH runs down to sub 3 minutes and Fort Bill can’t be that unless you move the start further down the hill. DH is all about getting people to pay to watch it now (unfortunately) so anything that doesn’t allow th tv package to be neat and tidy isn’t going to make the cut.

Gutted. I will be boycotting it in protest.

About what?

While it’s disappointing not to have races further afield, there are positives. It does mean that you can base your team in continental Europe and attend all the racing which will cut down on everyone’s air time, and that’s going to be better environmentally and cheaper to enter a team.

Shame it’s not really covering the ‘world.’ Agree with the environmental perspective.

Biggest plus side for me is that there’s a chance the Reeksy clan can attend a DH race in Europe.

martib
Full Member

Crankworx Fort William, come on Crankworx you know you want too.

They do not. They could put on a really good event outside of the worlds and I hope they do but what they definitely don’t want to do is build a load of new stuff. They <allegedly> got pretty much given a Hardline event on condition of building appropriate trails and just went lol no that is not how we roll.

I don’t think the midges. will be missed.

It’ll massively affect the Juniors and Elites who wanted to race a WC… In previous years Country specific jerseys were allocated in a much higher number for the ‘home’ races. In 2025 they’ve already reduced the standard jersey allocation from 7 to 4 for juniors, but Fort William was i think 12.  But now the juniors will only get 4 for all the international races 🙁

La Thuile have known they’re getting the DH (and Enduro) for a while, certainly since the Spring. They’ve been working on a new DH track all summer. Let’s just say it’s everything you’d expect when you combine “La Thuile” and “DH”. Somewhat scared just looking at it.

It’s going to be very, very steep. The visible (from the lift / other trails) sections they’ve built  are very sculpted/bikeparky but BIG. Huge, steep berms leading directly into jumps that are going to require full commitment to the berm, massive G-force and unhesitating full-send into the gaps. Safe to assume there are also going to be steep, rooty, tech sections in the trees.

From chatting with the head trail-builder, there isn’t going to be too much new building for the enduro, mostly re-working of previous EWS trails, but still going to be some new stuff and, surely, a few surprises.

Sounds good Stevo- hopefully you can nurse us down it next summer!