Race #2 of the 2026 World Cup DH calendar takes place this week in Loudenvielle, France. Keep tabs on the action, news and social posts right here. We'll have photo Pit Bits from Rick Schubert dropping and Vital Fantasy as the week progresses (no Lawlor at this round).
Weather as of Tuesday looking possibly wet for race day, but that could definitely change. Juniors be ready to have your quali count as race run 🤣
Rider entry list below.
PDF placeholder - loud_entries_dhi.pdf
FYI, because it’s a dh/enduro weekend the dh is Sunday as opposed to Saturday when it’s dh/xc weekend
The three World Cup DH races at Loudenvielle have had 3 different winners in both the Women’s and Men’s Elite division.
2023: Höll and Bruni
2024: Nicole and Coulanges
2025: Hemstreet and Goldstone
Notes:
Höll has also finished 2nd twice.
Bruni has finished 4th and 15th in his other 2 races at Loudenvielle.
Nicole finished 12th in 2025. She missed the 2023 race due to concussion.
Coulanges finished 16th and 23rd in the other 2 races.
Hemstreet’s other finish was 8th in 2023. She didn’t qualify for finals in 2024.
Goldstone came in 4th in 2023. He missed the 2024 race due to injury.
(There were only 10 women in the Elite Women finals in 2023 and 2024.)
The twins will be fired up for this one. Can’t wait.
ENDURO SEASON STARTS AND DOWNHILL RETURNS IN LOUDENVIELLE - PEYRAGUDES
The WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series heads to Loudenvielle-Peyragudes (France) to kick off the European Downhill season and open the Enduro campaign at a now-iconic Pyrenean venue. A fast, technical course sets the stage for high-intensity racing and brings together the top contenders in both disciplines.
27 May 2026 – The dust hasn’t even settled from the Endurance excitement in Nové Město Na Moravě (Czechia) and the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series is back with the return of the UCI Downhill and Enduro World Cups at the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series in Loudenvielle-Peyragudes, presented by FACOM.
The former will commence the Downhill European season after its opener in South Korea a month ago, while the latter sees the Enduro format’s curtain raiser – the first time that the Pyrenean venue has hosted the first round of the year.
The Louron Valley spot made its UCI World Cup debut in 2023 and has hosted the Enduro World Series since 2021. It’s easy to see why it’s become a staple of the season too. Located within the French Pyrenees’ top riding spot, Loudenvielle - Peyragudes is a year-round riding heaven, offering more than 500km of trails and a fast and furious pro-line downhill track that descends 540m in 2.4km.
PEARL OF THE FRENCH PYRENEES
Loudenvielle - Peyragudes is the premier location for mountain biking in the whole of the French Pyrenees. Located near the border with Spain and a stone’s throw from Andorra, its tight and tree-lined trails have become a favourite of the world’s Gravity-leaning riders.
The ‘DH World Cup’ trail was created especially for the 2023 UCI Downhill World Cup by the local Lourdon Bike and Trail Park team and French downhill icon Romain Paulhan. Melding man-made features with the hillside’s natural contours, the result is one of the most exciting courses on the whole UCI Downhill World Cup circuit.
The venue’s Enduro stages meanwhile take in the best trails of the Louron Valley. The UCI Enduro World Cup will see athletes take on five stages as part of a 49.3km course featuring 2,150m of descent (and 103m gain) during the race stages and 1,262m of ascent (and 1,300m of lifts) during liaisons. Three stages remain from last year’s edition, with Tourteres returning from the 2024 edition, and a UCI Enduro World Cup debut for Coumaou.
UCI Enduro World Cup - Stage Preview | Loudenvielle-Peyragudes (France)
WILDCARD ENTRIES
The following wildcard teams have been confirmed to compete at the Loudenvielle-Peyragudes UCI Downhill World Cup: Crestline Speed Shop, Outlaw Intense Racing, Pivot Factory Racing, Team High Country, The Alliance, and Stoic Racing.
All teams featured in the 2026 series opener in MONA YongPyong where wildcard highlights included Dylan Maples’ (Pivot Factory Racing) 14th in the Elite Men’s Finals and Alex Mallen’s (Outlaw Intense Racing) fifth in the Junior Men’s finals.
VERMETTE AND HÖLL HOLD THE ACES
We’re only one race into the 2026 UCI Downhill World Cup series, but there already appears to be contrasting battles for the overall title.
Asa Vermette (Frameworks Racing/TRP) made a statement in South Korea, finishing first in qualifying and finals to score maximum points in his first Elite UCI Downhill World Cup. The 19-year-old is part of an exciting crop of graduates from the Junior ranks and it’s clear that the likes of Loïc Bruni (Specialized Gravity) and Jackson Goldstone (Santa Cruz Syndicate) might face even more competition in the battle for the overall title.
Mr consistent Bruni is set to make a milestone 100th start in Loudenvielle. The Frenchman was second best four weeks ago and can be expected to podium as a minimum in the Pyrenees – having won at the venue in its UCI debut in 2023. Goldstone meanwhile will be hoping to make amends for a disappointing showing in South Korea, but the Canadian will take confidence from the fact that he had a similar start to the series in 2025 (finishing 20th in Biełsko-Biała, Poland) and still won the overall.
Elsewhere, Amaury Pierron (COMMENCAL/MUC-OFF by Riding Addiction) is looking in good form – finishing third despite a crash in his final’s run – and there’s more to come from Max and Till Alran (COMMENCAL/MUC-OFF by Riding Addiction) who progressed to the Elites alongside Vermette in the off-season.
The women’s competition isn’t a foregone conclusion, but Valentina Höll (Commencal Schwalbe by Les Orres) has already opened her account for the year and once the Austrian starts winning, it can be hard to catch her. The reigning overall title holder has never finished lower than second in Loudenvielle-Peyragudes either (winning in 2023), so things look ominous for her rivals this weekend.
Her biggest challengers for top spot are Myriam Nicole (COMMENCAL/MUC-OFF by Riding Addiction), Gracey Hemstreet (Norco X adidas Race Division) and Tahnée Seagrave (Orbea FMD Racing). Nicole had a solid start to her season by taking third place and will have extra confidence knowing that she has won in Loudenvielle-Peyragudes before (2024) with the full backing of the French crowd, whilst Hemstreet will look to get back to competitive ways after a slightly disappointing start in South Korea. Seagrave could still be in contention, but after an incident in qualifying at MONA YongPyong, she will assess how she feels before deciding whether to start in Loudenvielle-Peyragudes.
ŁUKASIK AND CONOLLY THE RIDERS TO BEAT IN UCI ENDURO WORLD CUP OPENER
After a long off-season, the UCI Enduro World Cup is finally returning this weekend and will be kicking off the six-round series in style in Loudenvielle-Peyragudes.
The Pyrenean venue has never hosted the curtain raiser but has always delivered unpredictable racing. It therefore should deliver an exciting start to a competitive series where every place and point will count come August’s finale in Morillon, Haute-Savoie (France).
In the men’s field, Sławomir Łukasik (Yeti/Fox Factory Race Team) will want to make a statement as he starts his defence of his overall title. The Polish rider finally picked up his first UCI Enduro World Cup in 2025 after a number of nailbiting second places, and once he had won one, the victories started flowing – securing three en route to his debut overall win.
He won’t have to contend with teammate and rival Richie Rude (Yeti/Fox Factory Race Team) in the Pyrenees, with the American focused on the UCI Downhill World Cup this weekend. He will, however, face stiff competition from some fast Frenchmen in Alex Rudeau and recently crowned national champion Albin Cambos.
Privateer Ella Conolly meanwhile is the favourite in the women’s field – the British rider dominant in last year’s edition on her way to a debut overall title. She might not have such a comfortable advantage this time out though. Isabeau Courdurier’s return to the sport after a season out is enough to send shivers down anyone’s spine, while Simona Kuchynkova (Cube Action Team), Morgane Charre (Pivot Factory Racing) and Nadine Ellecosta (Abetone Vittoria Nencini Sport Factory Team) have all proven to be worthy adversaries for Conolly on their day.
Racing gets underway in Loudenvielle - Peyragudes on Saturday with the UCI Enduro World Cup and the UCI Downhill World Cup qualifiers. Full schedule and events details are available here.
Does anyone know if qualifying will be brodcasted like it was last year when there was no xc the same weekend?
Start lists for Q1 are now on the UCI MTB World Series site:
https://live.ucimtbworldseries.com/
They only showed some Q2 highlights last year, no full broadcasts.
Any pit bits coming?
Brief schedule:
Note: UCI once again is giving Elite Men and Women the same amount of training time - 1 hour - the morning of qualifying, despite more than twice as many men on the qualifying start list (104 men vs. 40 women).
qualifying start lists below (PDF files) - will have fantasy open later today.
jr women
jr men
elite women
elite men
Loïc Bruni told Flo from Fast AF that this week is his 100th World Cup.
I'll save space by putting the link here rather than embedding. Loïc is the last interview in the video if anyone's interested.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-i70X3CKok
Loudenvielle Fantasy is live - https://www.vitalmtb.com/fantasy/2026/round-2-loudenvielle
Charlie Coquillard track walk with tape measure
Antidote Solutions DH bike and race team concept on site and out to prove their concept: https://www.vitalmtb.com/features/antidote-solutions-launches-as05-bike-and-turn-key-downhill-racing-program.
PIT BITS photos from Loudenvielle - https://www.vitalmtb.com/forums/hub/pit-bits-loudenvielle-world-cup-downhill
WynTV Track Walk
Enduro course preview:
Timed training results can be found here: https://live.ucimtbworldseries.com/
[Edited because I screwed up the time. I think timed training is complete.]
I've noticed that Frameworks (Asa specifically) don't seem to participate in Timed Training. Anyone have any insight? Is this strategic on their part? Do they feel like they have their own timing system (maybe via GoPro) that they use to gauge how their riders are going against other riders? They just don't want to know? For at least the last year I've noticed that Asa never has timed training results.
Top 18 from timed training for quick viewing. The gap between Junior and Elite Men is bigger than I thought it might be (8 seconds). Junior Women are on it though. Considering 3-18 in Elite Men is only separated by less than 3 seconds, making the show is going to be another bloodbath!
Elite Men
Elite Women
Junior Men
Junior Women
In this vid Mille mentions how the top is pretty straightforward, but things can still always go wrong….
And then today 😳
Glad she’s okay!
i kinda hope she doesn't try again tomorrow. that looked like a head slapper.
course POV with jackson!
Juniors tt was a big mess with a lot of red and yellow flags. Will see tomorrow 😉
Asa had a time posted for timed training at the Korea race. He was 26th fastest.
He also posted a time in timed training at MSA in the last race of 2025, going 3rd fastest.
Those are the only ones I checked. No idea how often he runs without a timing chip in timed training.
(Oh, and he won both races I mentioned.)
practice day with WynTV. the track is exceptionally blown out, full of holes, ruts and moon dust. weather may be wet on sunday, but at this rate, it may take a lot of rain to really matter.
ugh, that stinks! (i thought it was a queenstown_npc post at first too lol)
I was hoping it was
That sucks hope it's not anything too severe
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