The series’ flagship event, the UCI Mountain Bike World Series Festival Haute-Savoie, takes place in the iconic Portes du Soleil region in the towns of Les Gets, Châtel and Morzine-Avoriaz.
Alongside no less than 20 individual UCI Mountain Bike World Cup races, a wider festival will see fans treated to activations across the area that include autograph signing sessions, live music and freestyle riding demonstrations.
The festival represents the first time all the major mountain biking formats have come together across a single event, with cross-country Olympic, cross-country short track, cross-country marathon, downhill, enduro and E-enduro all on the roster for 10 days of non-stop action.
The spotlight is on the UCI Cross-country and Downhill World Cups this weekend, where the stakes will be higher than ever as the series titles come into sharp focus - each format only has three races left this season.
In cross-country Olympic, Puck Pieterse (Alpecin-Deceuninck) remains the name to beat in the Women's Elite category. Her early season dominance means she sits on top of the leaderboard, however, she faces stiff competition from the likes of UCI World Champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot (Ineos Grenadiers) and Loana Lecomte (Canyon CLLCTV) who will be looking to put down the power in front of their home crowd.
Ferrand-Prevot will be hoping to recreate her 2022 World Champs form in Les Gets
In the Men's Elite racing, it’s still Nino Schurter (Scott-SRAM MTB Racing Team) who leads the points, however, Mathias Flückiger’s (Thömus Maxon) win in Andorra means he is very much still in the contention for the series title, as is Luca Schwarzbauer (Canyon CLLCTV) whose strong form has seen him rack up two wins already this season.
In the downhill Vali Höll’s (Rockshox Trek Race Team) winning streak shows no signs of abating, as the reigning UCI World Champion is now over 600 points clear of closest competitor Nina Hoffman (Santa Cruz Syndicate) in the series points. However, both will be wary of Marine Cabirou (Scott Downhill Factory), as a French rider on home soil can never be discounted.
And it’s a similar story in the men’s race, with Loïc Bruni (Specialized Gravity) the clear favourite heading into Sunday’s race. Bruni’s win in Loudenvielle-Peyragudes last weekend propelled him to the overall series lead, which coupled with his legendary winning run at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Les Gets last year, means he’s very much the man to beat this weekend.
Specialized Gravity Teammate Finn Iles will have a point to prove - his disqualification last weekend saw him lose the title lead - and a win in Les Gets would get his overall series campaign back on track. Jackson Goldstone (Santa Cruz Syndicate) is just five points behind Iles, so expect a fierce battle to play out between these two.
les will be gunning for a win after losing the series leader's jersey in Loudenvielle
The marathon and enduro riders get their chance to shine next weekend, when the penultimate round of the UCI Marathon World Cup takes place in Morzine on Saturday (September 16), followed by the final round of the UCI Enduro World Cup in Châtel on Sunday (September 17).
More information on the UCI Mountain Bike World Series Festival Haute-Savoie is available here.
