All four formats were in action this weekend, as the UCI Enduro, Downhill, Cross-country Short Track (XCC) and Cross-country Olympic (XCO) World Cups converged on Saalfelden-Leogang Salzburgerland (Austria) for the first of two quadruple of the 2026 WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series.
The racing kicked off on Friday with a wet and wild XCC and didn’t let up until the final stage of Sunday’s UCI Enduro World Cup.
Only one rider – Valentina Höll (Commencal Schwalbe by Les Orres) – retains a 100% win record for 2026, while there were first-time UCI World Cup victories for Simon Andreassen (Orbea Fox Factory Racing) in XCC, Adrien Boichis (Specialized Factory Racing) in XCO, and Winnifred Goldsbury in the UCI Enduro World Cup.
But the winning riders only tell a small portion of the story from Austria. From a historic first in Downhill where the women’s Elite race closed the program, to dealing with a surprise disqualification in the Elite men’s XCO, here are some of the behind-the-scenes highlights from this week’s THE B LINE.
HÖLL ROLLS ON
Vali Höll is following in the footsteps of the mountain biking greats Anne-Caroline Chausson and Rachel Atherton by going three-from-three in 2026, but the Austrian was over the moon to have won in front of a passionate home crowd.
“It’s so cool to win at home. It’s the best thing in the world,” she said to Josh Carlson.
“It’s cool to see Leogang become more of a hotspot for Downhill and the crowd every year is bigger. Lina [Frener] won in the Juniors category, so the future of Downhill is also Austria.”
KIEFER PLEASED WITH PODIUM
Henri Kiefer (Canyon DH Racing) has had a slow start to 2026, but things aligned for the German rider in Leogang as he followed up third in qualifying with third in finals.
“The season kicked off, I didn’t start well, but I’m so stoked. Leogang is a fast track and pushes your limits so you have to expect some small things. This place means a lot because the family is always coming here. It’s like my home race. I live in Austria now, near Innsbruck, I’m an ambassador for Leogang, it all worked out so well. It’s a dream scenario.”
CABIROU MAKES HISTORY IN MOMENTOUS DAY FOR WOMEN’S DOWNHILL
Saalfelden-Leogang Salzburgerland also witnessed history on Saturday with the women’s Elite field taking to the mountain at the end of the session and swapping with the men’s contest for the first time. For fastest qualifier Marine Cabirou (Canyon DH Racing), it also meant closing out the racing with the last race run of the day.
“It’s pretty amazing, and it was pretty amazing to live that once in my life. It was insane to see everyone go at the top and feel alone. I think it’s amazing for women’s sport to do that at least once per year.
“My highlight is winning the qualifying because it was the first time in my life, and I finished second after starting last. Finally, I start to feel myself again on the bike so I’m happy with that. It gives me a lot of confidence. I was feeling good in South Korea but I crashed in the race run so I lost a bit of confidence. It was a bit hard to find the pace in Loudenvielle and to push again, but finally I feel good again and confident on the bike so it will be good for the next one.”
NEWKIRK A FAN OF THE SWITCH
Anna Newkirk (Frameworks / TRP Racing) was also a fan of the women’s race swapping with the men’s field, although noted how it left her with more time than she is used to on race day.
“It was really cool getting to drop so late in the day. I dropped at 3pm. I normally race at 1pm or 12:30pm depending on how I qualified. It was so cool getting to go so late and having such a big crowd was really awesome as well.
“What time I put my race run down doesn’t really matter to me. I guess it’s the same with start order – I don’t care if I drop first. I’ve never dropped last but I’ve dropped second to last a handful of times now. I don’t really care when I drop. I’m racing against myself.
“I guess one thing that was pretty different was having so much time to overthink everything. We had five hours between practice and finals, so I was just sitting there thinking all day. I tried to take a nap and instead of napping I was just going through the track again over and over in my head.”
ILES HAPPY TO BE OUT OF THE ONE WIN CLUB
Another Elite winner in Saalfelden-Leogang Salzburgerland was Finn Iles (Specialized Factory Racing). The Canadian has been on an upward trajectory this season and his victory was the first since his debut in 2022.
“I didn’t expect it today. It feels good to get it done. Second time feels a lot different. It feels like we put a lot of work to get here. Four years, five seasons since I won in MSA. It’s been a long time.
“I can’t say thank you enough to the team I have around me. The bike is a machine and I think Loïc [Bruni]’s been second in Korea, Jordan [Williams] was third in Loudenvielle and for me to win it means a lot. The biggest thing we did was trust what we already knew about the bike. We’ve done so much testing so we can predict what the conditions are going to be like and how the bike is going to react to those predictions. The boys made a big change after practice day. They softened the rear end, we stiffened the fork and we added air to the main chamber.
“Last year was such a downer. I just struggled through everything. I was dealing with injuries to my back, so I never felt like I could train or ride properly. I can’t say thank you enough to Specialized, all the people around me, my girlfriend, my family for just helping me build myself back up into who I know I can be, and to be at the top feels amazing. I hope I can stay here and just build upon myself, build confidence, focus and continue to make this bike faster than it already is. All the stuff I went through last year has just made me a better athlete. It’s made me look at all the small details”.
MARTIN, RILEY AND ALDRIDGE SHARE THOUGHTS ON VARIED RACE WEEKEND
The cross-country riders took to the Saalfelden-Leogang Salzburgerland trails either side of the downhill action, and Ashleigh Wilmot caught up with Luca Martin (Cannondale Factory Racing), Bjorn Riley (Scott-SRAM MTB Race Team) and Charlie Aldridge (Cannondale Factory Racing) after the dust had settled on a feisty XCO that saw second-place finisher Mathis Azzaro (Origine Racing Division) disqualified for taking the wrong line through the tech zone and Martin and Riley bumped up to second and third respectively as a result.
“My first feeling is I was sorry for him because he did the wrong thing, but it’s not nice to be disqualified,” said Martin.
“I had no clue. I thought I was fourth,” added Riley. “I felt like it was super cool, but the same as Luca [Martin], at the end of the day if you’re in [Azzaro’s] position, it’s a big bummer. It’s a hard one. It’s still really cool to be third.”
Aldridge meanwhile had to settle for 35th, but the Brit was returning from a chest infection so was realistic about his result.
“I tried to manage my effort. When you’ve had a chest infection for the last two weeks and you’re still coughing, your body’s not at 100% and you can’t push the same. The short track I thought was going to be fine and then I lasted about 15 minutes and blew my doors off. I still came 17th, so that was still good. [For the XCO], I was on cruise control, managing my effort, but the last two laps were pretty tough. I enjoyed it. It’s cool to be here, and the descents are really good fun.”
Talk then turned to hobbies, with Martin and Riley sharing a passion for rally cars, while Aldridge likes to spend his off-season trail building for his bikes.
“I’m lucky at home, I’ve got some good places to build trails near me,” added Aldridge. “The mountain is my canvas and my art. I go out and can really make it feel how I want to. You can make the trail and then ride it after with your mates. I built my own cross-country course so I can go and train on that.”
All three will be in action again this weekend in Lenzerheide (Switzerland) with the racing coming thick and fast over the coming weeks.
“It’s great because you can be so lazy,” said Riley. “Now, it’s about recovering, getting your easy spins in, a few intervals and then other than that, you just go and eat food and get physio. It’s nice to have a flow. The hardest thing is managing form. You need to have a bigger block every couple of weeks but you have six weeks and it’s full gas. Your form is hard to hold."
