UCI Mountain Bike Cross-country Short Track World Cup
Luca Schwarzbauer (Canyon CLLCTV) 860 points (+80)
The king of horsepower, Luca Schwarzbauer continues to threaten to turn the world back on its axis with his corss-country short track (XCC) performances. Not only does he have almost irresistible reserves of firepower however, in 2023 he’s becoming a pass master in where and how to best deploy them. There have been some clever performances in his wake but ultimately no-one has found an answer to getting past the big German.
Consistency has long been multiple UCI World Champ Pauline Ferrand-Prevot’s watchword and this season, despite stating that she’d prefer to be winning UCI Mountain Bike Cross-country Olympic World Cup races, she’s been a podium constant on Friday evenings.
UCI Mountain Bike Cross-country Olympic World Cup
Rumour has it that teams of scholars of linguistics are combing the farthest flung corners of the earth in an attempt to unearth as-yet unheard superlatives for what Nino Schurter is accomplishing in 2023. Joking aside, when he goes, he goes and no-one has any answers for it. Lenzerheide (where he took the overall wins record) and Val di Sole (where he vanished at the front of the race) were both vintage displays and well worthy of the points lead. Behind him his rivals continue to scrap and take points off of each other.
Puck Pieterse (Alpecin Deceuninck) 1096 points (+296)
The Flying Dutchwoman is rapidly becoming the stand out, brightest star of 2023. She’s a threat in the UCI XCC World Cup but it’s in the UCI XCO World Cup where she really comes to life. Three out of four rounds have gone her way - it looks highly likely that more will follow.
UCI Mountain Bike E-Enduro World Cup
One of the most established figureheads of international mountain bike racing refuses to hang up his painstakingly well-positioned cleats. Barel is pioneering onwards on a new battlefield - E-EDR. He remains cagey about how many more rounds he will compete in but rest assured if he has a leader's jersey to defend then he will take to the start stage.
Popular Chilean Flo Espineira is one of those journeyman racers who seems to have landed in a format that suits her down to the ground. Laura Charles (Miranda Factory Team) remains a thorn in her side but as long as Flo keeps smiling, she’ll keep the lead.
UCI Mountain Bike Enduro World Cup
They say that the third time's a charm but could this be the season that America’s Richie Rude finally clinches his third overall title for Yeti / Fox Factory Racing Team? The UCI Mountain Bike Enduro World Cup is proving to be a tightly-contested theatre of conflict as ever. Only two riders (Sam Hill and Cecile Ravanel) have managed to snare three titles in staged racing over the years. Rude is on two and, for now, looks confident of making it three.
Much more so than the elite men’s ranks, elite women’s side of the UCI Mountain Bike Enduro World Cup is more used to seeing single dominating figures loom large at the top of the overall points tables. But over the last couple of years, that has shifted. New faces have emerged and rivalries have dug in. Isabeau Courdurier, already an overall winner, is under pressure from Morgane Charre (Pivot Factory Racing) but is still holding on to the jersey.
UCI Mountain Bike Downhill World Cup
In the elite women’s ranks of the UCI Mountain Bike Downhill World Cup the momentum feels like it is firmly with one Valentina Höll (XXXX). The reigning UCI World Champion won at home in Leogang and backed it up with a win in Val di Sole Trentino. But, crucially, it’s not yet been enough to remove the leaders jersey from the shoulders of the reigning overall title holder Camille Balanche. The Swiss star will be hoping that the summer break takes some of the momentum out of Höll’s current stellar form.
The early season headlines and plaudits (rightly) went to Jackson Goldstone’s rival Jordan Williams (Specialized Gravity) when he won his first ever elite level UCI World Cup win at the first time of asking at round one in Lenzerheide. But Goldstone kept working and kept building his speed. It nearly came together in Leogang before his irresistible performance in Val di Sole brought him not only that debut top flight win but also the overall title leaders jersey. It’s tight at the top but, for the moment, an 18 year-old Canadian leads the way.
