Record-breaking broadcast performances, significant digital engagement, and over 250,000 passionate fans attending in person have marked the first 11 rounds of the 2025 WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series* — powered by a reimagined promotional and coverage strategy from Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) Sports.

Chris Ball, Vice President of Cycling Events at WBD Sports, said: “All the successes we’ve seen so far this season have truly justified our work in partnership with the Union Cycliste Internationale, riders, teams, venues and partners. The radical changes to the racing in 2025, including the new, high drama Q1 and Q2 format in downhill, combined with an entirely new approach to mountain bike professional team structure and the creation of the new UCI Mountain Bike World Series Teams is proving successful across the board. 

“When we became the first global promoters of the discipline, our ambition was clear — to harness the scale of our global broadcast, streaming, and digital platforms to engage millions and elevate mountain bike to new heights all the way from on-ground operations to live broadcast innovations. Now in our third season of taking control of the promotion and organisation of the Series, we are thrilled to see that the significant changes we’ve made are working and resonating with fans, athletes and teams around the world.”

RECORD-BREAKING VIEWERSHIP

Innovation has been central to WBD’s ambition in attracting new audiences to mountain bike. WBD has focused on making broadcasts more accessible and engaging, introducing features like heart-rate zones and strain gauges that demonstrate just how physically demanding the races are. It has also added visual elements such as athlete headshots, race bike images, team logos and colours, national flags, and career stats for past UCI World Cup winners to additionally increase awareness and enhance team and athlete exposure.

So far this season, millions of viewers across the globe have enjoyed live and on-demand coverage of the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series on linear and streaming on WBD’s channels and platforms (HBO Max, Eurosport, discovery+ and TNT Sports), with 56 million cumulative views and 15 million watch hours.

This includes WBD’s most-watched WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series round to date, with Val di Sole – Trentino (Italy) amassing nearly 15 million cumulative views on WBD channels— surpassing the previous record set in Nové Město Na Moravě (Czechia) in 2023 (+15.4 per cent).

CONNECTING WITH FANS BEYOND THE LIVE

WBD’s 360-degree ecosystem expands storytelling beyond the live broadcast, telling every story on and off the track through extensive digital and social coverage and the creation of new, non-live mountain bike content.

The WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series social media channels have continued to bring fans closer to the action and riders, and at the same time attract new fans to the discipline. This season, there have been 225 million total video views and 11 million total engagements across TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, with the social media teams posting more content to more fans than ever before.  

The official WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series website has also continued to play an integral role, providing news, updates and event information to users from across the world. It has received 1.7 million total page views since the start of the 2025 series, and the live timing feature on race weekends has continued to be one of the largest drivers of traffic throughout the season – particularly during UCI Enduro World Cup rounds.

WBD has demonstrated its commitment to off-road cycling content with the launch of two new, original WBD-produced programmes – Grit and Glory: Enduro Mountain Bike Racing and Race Bikes.

The first is an eight-part, behind-the-scenes docuseries that follows all seven rounds of the 2025 UCI Enduro World Cup, giving viewers an exciting and intimate glimpse into the world of professional Enduro mountain bike racing. Race Bikes meanwhile takes a deep dive into the sport’s fastest machines, focusing on the mountain bikes that redefined what was possible, brought the whole sport forward and allowed the world’s best riders to achieve the seemingly impossible.

STRONG ON-SITE ATTENDANCE

At the heart of it all though of course are the UCI World Cup rounds themselves and the unparalleled race-day experience. From the opening rounds in Araxá, Minas Gerais (Brazil) to Pal Arinsal (Andorra), over 250,000 fans have lined the courses of iconic and new venues alike, creating a vibrant and electric atmosphere that’s been felt both trackside and by viewers around the world.

Thanks to a ground-breaking long-term partnership between WBD Sports and the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) initiated in 2023 almost all major mountain bike formats were unified under a single brand for the first-time, creating the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series.

The action continues in Haute-Savoie (France) with the UCI Enduro World Cup in Morillon (22-24 August) and Cross-country and Downhill racing in Les Gets (28-31 August).

*Figures from January 1st – August 1st 2025