The UCI and Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) announced today that the Enduro World Series along with the E-EWS will all be rolled into the UCI, following the recent addition of cross-country marathon (XCM) to the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup.
Just four months ago, the EWS and UCI shared their calendar for 2023 which incorporated EWS events into some of the same locations as other MTB World Cup events, such as Leogang, Austria and an unannounced venue in France.
The press release from the EWS stated that “all enduro events on the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup will be one-day events.” Starting in 2023, there will be a points system for each timed Special Stage and the amount of points a rider accumulates will decide the order of riders for the last Special Stage with the rider who has the most points taking the last race run. This works similarly to downhill World Cup events where the rider with the best qualifying run starts last on finals.
The E-Enduro, also added to the UCI World Cup, will follow the same rules on different courses “including challenging technical climbs suited to the attributes of an enduro E-mountain bike.”
With this announcement, the EWS shared that Elite downhill athletes will see more broadcast time thanks to the introduction of a semi-final between the qualifying runs and the finals.
“Featuring the top 60 Elite Men and top 15 Elite Women from qualifying, the downhill semi-final will see men outside the top 30 and women outside the top 10 enjoy broadcast coverage for the first time. Forty Elite riders (30 men and 10 women) will qualify for the final, where the goal is to broadcast each of the 40 runs in their entirety live on WBD platforms.”
Junior men’s and women’s categories will also be broadcast for the first time, though this press release still did not indicate how viewers will get to watch either the EWS or downhill and cross-country events since the UCI parted ways with Red Bull and joined with WBD, though organizers insist that the new partnership will “attract new audiences.”
The full calendar for the 2023 UCI MTB World Cup will be published next week, according to the release. The EWS will now formally change its title and be known as the UCI Mountain Bike Enduro World Cup (EDR).
