Pre-season UCI MOUNTAIN BIKE WORLD SERIES digest

Season of short jerseys is approaching and with it also the UCI MOUNTAIN BIKE World Cup, whose opening stop this year will take place on May 1-3 at the Korean MONA resort YongPyong, a sports venue from the 2018 Olympics. It's the right time to take a look around the peloton and slightly reveal the cards of what awaits us. Both throughout the season and at the May stop of the series in Nové Město na Moravě. Ready?

ORG

World Cup under the baton of WBD: from TV screens closer to fans

The multinational giant Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) has completed its first three years as the promoter of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup. While the initial stage was marked by a "big cleanup" of the rules and the building of a prestigious television spectacle, now comes the next stage of development: "the fan first".

After investments in cameras and transmission technology, the focus is shifting to the race venue with the aim of delivering an even better experience to those who cheer right on the track at each event. So what can we look forward to in 2026?

For example, an interactive program and richer accompanying events. Or fun in the fan zone with partner activations of existing and new sponsors Monster, Scott and RockShox, who will bring their latest technical gadgets or star ambassadors to NMNM.

We will reveal a detailed overview of all fringe events very soon.

TEAMS

New LAPIERRE PXR Racing Team

Lapierre has unveiled its new elite team, Lapierre PXR Racing, which will become its main face in the cross-country World Cup. This new formation is created by combining the foundations of the defunct Ghost Factory Racing team and the sports background of the previous Lapierre Unity team. In one team, we will see the best of both original teams in terms of rider composition: Nicole Koller (SUI), Anne Terpstra (NED) and Caroline Bohé (DEN) among the women, and Anton Cooper (NZL) with Tobias Lillelund (NOR) among the men.

It should be added that Ghost and Lapierre are brands under the same owner, the Accell Group (which also includes the e-bike specialist Haibike), which, according to many online sources, is going through a deep financial crisis. Consolidating Accell Group's marketing in top sports into one project is such a logical step. But it is interesting to see that big brands cannot completely cut off marketing, because that would quite possibly mean their complete end! Let's keep our fingers crossed for the new team and come to Nové Město to get their autograph!

BMC Factory Racing changes identity: New “Off-Road” concept combines MTB and gravel

The Swiss team BMC Factory Racing is responding to modern trends and transforming into a broader concept with the subtitle “Off-Road”. The goal is to erase the boundaries between disciplines and dominate not only the World Cup cross-country courses, but also prestigious gravel races and marathons.

The team will retain French mainstays Jordan Sarrou, Tituan Carod and Loana Lecomte, as well as Italian talent Juri Zanotti. There are also young guns Janis Baumann and the versatile Steffi Häberlin, who successfully combined road, MTB and gravel starts last season, which actually foreshadowed the current direction of the team. The talented Spaniard Marta Tora is coming as a newcomer, who excels both in technical terrain and in performance on long routes.

Are you also curious about what it will look like in practice and whether the team will manage to achieve satisfactory results in all planned disciplines? And will it be an evolution for BMC or something else? Let's wait and see...

PEOPLE

Queen of Czech Cycling and World Champion

Junior Barbora Bukovská had a wonderful start to 2026 when she was first crowned the youngest ever winner of the King of Czech Cycling poll for her extraordinary performances in the previous season, and then just two weeks later she confirmed her world class by winning the title of junior world champion in cyclo-cross in Hulst, Netherlands.

In a dramatic race, she defeated her great French rival Lisa Revol and the bronze medalist Czech Lucie Grohová, and won the prestigious rainbow jersey for the Czech Republic for the first time since 2014, when Zdeněk Štybar won it in the Elite Men category. May Bukovská continue to ride like this – all the fans along the track in NMNM will certainly appreciate that.

Sammie OUT

A surprising piece of news came out of New Zealand over the winter: After a challenging 2025 season, reigning women's cross-country World Cup champion Samara Maxwell (Decathlon Ford Racing Team) announced that she would be taking a break for the entire 2026 season. She will not only be stepping down from racing, but also from media duties, social media and public appearances. This break will allow her to physically recover, mentally recharge and spend precious time with family and friends.

Maxwell has spoken openly about her struggles with eating disorders in the past. In this light, her excellent start to the 2025 season and subsequent consistent performance until the last race was great news and confirmation that she had managed to overcome her difficulties.

But the current stopwatch suggests that life at the top is extremely demanding and exhausting for many athletes, especially if they spend the entire year away from home, which is natural for an athlete from New Zealand. Hopefully Samara will return someday – to a racing jersey and to Nové Město!

Nino 2026

Nino Schurter is entering a new phase in his life. Although he will no longer be competing in the elite cross-country calendar and has more to worry about at home thanks to the arrival of his new offspring Leo Storm, he will continue to be an active rider and ambassador. Even after leaving the World Cup, he remains a registered elite rider for the SCOTT-SRAM MTB Racing team, with whom he has extended his contract until the end of 2026.

However, his sporting focus is shifting towards gravel races (he will probably participate in The Traka in Spain and other races in Iceland or British Columbia) and his start at the Absa Cape Epic is also open (probably alongside Filippo Colombo). He also wants to focus on other disciplines – enduro, e-MTB or interesting marathons.

In addition, he co-founded the company GOATtrails AG, which focuses on the design and construction of cycling and hiking trails, and is also a member of the board of directors of the Lenzerheide tourism organization, where he participates in the development of the region as a cycling destination. GOAT is not dead. We would not be surprised at all if he appeared as an ambassador in Nové Město, there is definitely a chance and there will be one very nice product that he might want to present in person...

Jolanda in the CX spotlight before the XC season start

Swiss Olympic champion Jolanda Neff returned to cyclocross after a few years. She completed a total of twelve races and ended the CX season with an excellent sixth place at the World Championships in Hulst, Netherlands, where she was in the group fighting for third place for almost the entire race (and the bronze medal was eventually won by another cyclist, Puck Pieterse, who, however, regularly practices cyclocross in the winter).

Jolanda described the CX season as an ideal training for the upcoming mountain bikes, confirming the growing trend of connecting different cycling disciplines among elite riders. Will we see more CX riders on thick tires? Which of them would you like to see in Nové Město?

DH and END Transfer News

The downhill World Cup carousel has been hit by the recent insolvency of the German brand YT. While the brand itself may not be dead, its YT Mob racing program certainly is. The end of the team has affected the reigning World Champion and the biggest star among downhill riders, Vali Höll, who has since found a job with the Commencal Schwalbe by Les Orres team. Her teammate Andy Kolb is then moving to the Santa Cruz Syndicate with Jackson Goldstone.

Irishman Oisin O’Callaghan is moving to the Trek Unbroken DH team, while legend and five-time series champion Aaron Gwin, after two years spent in his own team, is moving to the American team Frameworks Racing / TRP, where he will pass on his experience to the aggressive youth in the form of Asa Vermette and Anna Newkirk.

Not very optimistic news comes from the enduro. The scene's stalwart and the second finisher of the 2025 series, Canadian Jesse Melamed, has decided to gradually leave. In 2026, we will only see him at selected events. Along with the end of the YT Mob team, Christian Textor also announced his departure from the series, and not much is known about how the prominent figure Jack Moir, who occasionally made his mark in downhill, will continue.

Which of these faces will we probably welcome to Czech soil? And when will it be? As early as 2029 at the World Championships in Lower Moravia or perhaps earlier?

RACING

Koretzky and Koller dominate the first bigger race in 2026

The 25th anniversary of the prestigious Shimano Super Cup Massi race in Banyoles, Spain (HC category) attracted a tight competition on Sunday, February 22nd and confirmed the dominance of Victor Koretzky in the men's category. The French rider of the Specialized Factory team triumphed here for the sixth time, when he decided his victory in the technical section of the last lap. Second place was won by the Swiss Dario Lillo and third place was taken by the German Luca Schwarzbauer.

In the women's race, the Swiss Nicole Koller, in the colors of the newly formed LAPIERRE PXR Racing team, rejoiced in the victory, escaping her rivals in the second half of the course and finishing for a solo victory ahead of the second Valentina Corvi.

Czech track: Jan Sáska finished in 30th place in the tight competition for men and Jitka Čábelická made her racing debut in Banyoles this year with 21st place.

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