UCI & Warner cancel the EDR World Cup: The Enduro World Cup is history – so what next?

​An era is coming to an end. What began in 2013 with the first season of the Enduro World Series has evolved over ten years of the EWS and four seasons as the official UCI Enduro World Cup – and will now draw to a close in 2026. As recently as May, a draft UCI calendar listed six enduro events for the coming season. That is no longer going to happen.

However, this does not mean that enduro will disappear completely from the international UCI scene. In future, the World Championships are set to be the sporting highlight – rather than a World Cup series comprising several races. So the rainbow jersey will remain, but the overall World Cup standings will not. From 2027, only one race will count.

UCI press release dated 19 August 2026, translated into German:

​The International Cycling Union (UCI) and Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) Sports have announced today that the 2026 edition of the UCI Enduro World Cup will be the last to form part of the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series.
From 2027, the UCI Mountain Bike Enduro and E-Enduro World Championships will be strengthened as the leading international enduro event. The event brings together the discipline’s best riders every year, who compete in the various categories for the UCI World Champion’s rainbow jerseys.

The integration of enduro into the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series has contributed significantly to its visibility and growth. However, given its specific characteristics, the UCI and WBD Sports have concluded that the further development of the format can now be better supported through a more targeted approach – focusing on its own particular strengths – rather than through its inclusion in a series that combines various mountain bike formats.

For more than a decade, the Enduro World Series (EWS) and WBD Sports have worked together with athletes, teams, organisers and partners to contribute to the growth and professionalisation of enduro – at both elite and amateur levels. During this time, the 2024 UCI Mountain Bike Enduro and E-Enduro World Championships were launched.

The 2026 UCI Mountain Bike Enduro and E-Enduro World Championships will take place from 16 to 18 October in the Finale Outdoor Region, Liguria (Italy) – a location regarded as the birthplace of enduro.

Enduro and E-Enduro will also feature in the programme of the 2027 UCI Cycling World Championships in Haute-Savoie Mont-Blanc, France.

Interview with Frederik Matz: “This is an opportunity, not a loss”

The Enduro World Cup is now history. Frederik from the S1 Racing Team has reacted with surprising calm – and explains why the end of the series could actually be a relief for the sport.

Freddy, the last 48 hours have been a turbulent time in the life of an Enduro World Cup rider. How do you view the current situation?

Yes, the last two days have been absolutely mad. First came the announcement that the current UCI Enduro World Cup was coming to an end, and then, the very next day, the news about Crankworx. It all came rather out of the blue.

It is said that the two announcements were apparently even supposed to be published at the same time. This suggests that there was probably a longer-term plan behind it.

At the same time, I’m also pretty stoked because, as the new organiser and promoter of enduro, Crankworx is, of course, a massive deal. I think this gives us the chance to really usher in a new era that can do our sport a world of good.

In recent years, enduro has had to share the limelight with a great many other disciplines within a single race weekend. Now there is an opportunity to put enduro back in the spotlight and to restore the sport’s own identity and platform, which had made it so popular in the EWS era.

Do you know any more details about what’s going to happen next?

So far, Whistler has been confirmed as a destination. I also expect that a number of well-known World Cup venues in Europe will be very keen to be part of the new series. The coming days and weeks will certainly reveal which of these plans actually come to fruition.

I’m certainly really excited to see what Crankworx comes up with next. But I’m convinced that this could be a massive boost for enduro racing at the very highest international level.

I also think it’s particularly cool that the series is set to expand beyond Europe again. I believe that for us drivers, but just as much for the teams and sponsors, this brings a breath of fresh air that the sport has really needed.