Enduro is (finally) getting its own world championships

It’s finally official. Enduro will have a world championships in 2024. The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) announced that the first enduro, and e-enduro world champs will be held in Val di Fassa Trentino, Italy, this September.

For much of enduro’s history, it was not a UCI sanctioned race format. So, like slopestyle, it did not have a UCI world championship event. When the UCI did start sanctioning what was then the Enduro World Series, many thought a world championships would soon follow. The Enduro World Series became the Enduro World Cup, coming fully under the UCI’s umbrella, in 2023. Now, one year later, a proper world championships event is happening.

The announcement comes at a time when a whole gang of Canadians are well positioned to do well at, and maybe even medal at a world championship event. Elly Hoskin and Emmy Lan have put a Canadian on nearly every international under-21 women’s podium for the last three years straight. Jesse Melamed won the 2022 Enduro World Series and was up there in the overall in 2023. Enduro World Cup racing returns to Leogang, Austria this weekend where, in ’23, Squamish’s Rhys Verner won his first elite enduro World Cup. Andréane Lanthier-Nadeau remains a threat to the women’s podium and there is always a gaggle of under-21 men from Canada in the top 10 at every Enduro World Cup. So bring on Val di Fassa this September!

UCI’s full enduro world championships announcement

The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) and Warner Bros. Discovery are pleased to announce that the first edition of the UCI Mountain Bike Enduro and E-enduro World Championships will take place this year in Val di Fassa Trentino, Italy, on 14 – 15 September.

It will be the first time that the UCI World Champion’s rainbow jersey will be awarded for these mountain bike formats, which made their debut at the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in 2023. Four titles will be at stake: Men Enduro, Women Enduro, Men E-enduro and Women E-enduro.

Val di Fassa Trentino has hosted top tier enduro racing since 2019, including an enduro round of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup last year. The stages are based around the town of Canazei in the heart of the spectacular Italian Dolomites, home to one of the most spectacular enduro trails in the world, the “Tutti Frutti”. Its iconic…