In its third season as broadcaster, promoter and organiser, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) Sports drove the 2025 WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series to new records across broadcast, digital and social platforms, and on-site fan attendance*. 

2025 reached a true turning point with significant updates to UCI Regulations, including major changes to the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup qualification system and the introduction of WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series Teams. These reforms build on a groundbreaking long-term partnership between WBD Sports and the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) launched in 2023, unifying most major mountain bike formats under a single brand for the first time.

During 16 race weekends in 10 countries across three continents, 64 UCI World Cup winners were crowned, with new overall champions emerging in all-but-one Elite category, highlighting the heightened competitiveness and excitement driven by the latest reforms. On the industry side, 30 mountain bike manufacturers secured UCI World Cup victories through their trade teams during the season with Canyon leading the table, closely followed by Cube and Specialized.

The 2025 season also welcomed an exciting new long-term partner venue in La Thuile – Valle D’Aosta  (Italy), which hosted the first-ever UCI Enduro World Cup night race, alongside the introduction of a thrilling Downhill course at a 2024 newcomer venue Lake Placid Olympic Region (USA) and the return of several iconic venues across South America, North America and Europe.

NEW BENCHMARKS SET FOR VIEWERSHIP

For the third consecutive year, the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series saw record-breaking worldwide TV viewership. WBD’s channels and platforms (HBO Max, Eurosport, discovery+ and TNT Sports) accounted for the majority of the audience, generating over 87 million cumulative views across the season. This growth was fuelled by thousands of hours of racing broadcast on over 25 partner TV and streaming channels, extending the series’ reach to fans in over 150 countries and territories worldwide.

As part of the reform, the UCI and WBD Sports also worked closely with the teams to deliver greater exposure and enhanced marketing opportunities. Broadcast graphics were upgraded to maximise on-screen visibility and increase the media value for teams, athletes and brands, incorporating elements such as headshots, race bike images, team logos, colours, career numbers and national flags. These enhancements helped raise awareness among millions of fans watching worldwide, while creating a more cohesive and recognisable visual identity across events and media platforms.

In parallel, WBD continued to enhance its broadcasts to help viewers better understand the racing and provide deeper context for fans at home, with accessible, data-driven insights such as heart-rate zones and athlete strain metrics during races — all powered by WHOOP.

In 2025, WBD also invested in a portfolio of non-live cycling content, with the launch of two new, original documentaries – Grit and Glory: Enduro Mountain Bike Racing, an inside look at the 2025 UCI Enduro World Cup season, and Race Bikes, a deep dive into the sport’s fastest machines. 

FAN-LED GROWTH 

WBD takes storytelling beyond live broadcasts, capturing every moment on and off the track through comprehensive digital and social coverage.

During the 2025 season, more than 250,000 new users followed the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series official accounts (TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube), bringing the total follower count to 1.25 million. This season, social channels have continued to bring fans closer to the action whilst attracting new audiences to the sport, surpassing one billion impressions since the start of the WBD Sports era in 2023.

This interest carried over into the expanded media coverage of the series on owned and earned platforms. The new official WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series website (an essential hub for all news, previews, reports and athlete profiles) saw record-breaking volumes of traffic in 2025, generating 5 million total page views (+233% vs 2024) taking the total to more than 10 million since the series’ inception in 2023.

Along with the millions of viewers watching at home and online, a record 440,000 fans attended on-site, with 97% of those surveyed saying they would return to another WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series event in the future. More than 100,000 descended on Haute-Savoie alone over two weekends of racing in Les Gets and Morillon.  

Chris Ball, VP Cycling Events at Warner Bros. Discovery Sports Europe, said: “The third year of the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series has exceeded all expectations. What began as an ambitious vision a few years ago has now become one of the most thrilling spectacles on the international sporting calendar. With the continued support of the UCI, which has embraced our ambition for change, we have introduced reforms that are genuinely transforming the sport and elevating the experience for both athletes and fans. 

We are proud to see these results reflect the positive response to the changes we believed in from the outset, and we remain confident that we will continue to drive growth and innovation with every new season.”

UCI President David Lappartient said: "From the opening rounds in Brazil in April, to four months of racing in European destinations, before returning to the American continent for the final two rounds - in the USA and Canada – the 2025 WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series was an enormous success. Thanks to our collaboration with Warner Bros. Discovery Sports we have taken this leading mountain bike series to new heights, both in terms of sporting interest and international popularity. We will continue to work together to build on this success and ensure that both mountain bike athletes and fans can continue to look forward to innovative and exciting season-long competitions.” 

EYES ON 2026

The 2025 season marked the most significant overhaul in mountain bike since the inception of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in 1991, reshaping the sport’s landscape, raising professional standards across the series, and elevating elite teams to new levels and new audiences worldwide. Building on these strong foundations, the 2026 WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series aims to deliver another record-breaking season across all four formats. 

The 2026 season kicks off in May with the Race of South Korea – marking the return of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup to the Asian continent for the first time in 25 years. The series will also make first-time stops at Soldier Hollow, Midway, Utah (USA) and Downhill’s spiritual home of Whistler Mountain Bike Park, British Columbia (Canada), delivering on decades of anticipation from fans, teams and athletes alike. And this is just a taste of things to come, with 14 race weekend across three continents, nine countries, including two quadruple headers and a series finale in the US at the iconic Lake Placid Olympic Region.

*Figures from January 1st – November 1st 2025