After pushing for six years with little change, Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) announced it will not run the E-Mountain Bike Cross-country World Cup series in 2026.
The series launched in 2021. In the six years since it’s development has, the UCI says, “not meet the expected international growth objectives,” so you’ll be forgiven if you forgor, or never noticed the series happening. Cycling’s organizing body was quick to point out that that development was “under the responsibility of WES Management.”
What’s next?
First, world championships. That will remain on the schedule at Val di Sole this August as an UCI championship event for 2026.
And then?
Well, UCI says that “Discussions are ongoing with the different stakeholders to identify the best opportunities to advance the development of E-mountain bike and define its next steps on the international stage.”
So clearly UCI is still hyped on racing eMTB in some forms.
“Given the outlook for the coming years and the evolution of the various mountain bike formats, the UCI wishes to conduct a review of E-mountain bike to enable different stakeholders to agree on the next steps for the development of the discipline.”
eMTB racing continues to struggle
While eMTB is growing rapidly in popularity, the UCI and other organizer still seem to struggle to find a way to integrate the machines into cycling’s existing culture of racing. eEnduro events have had some, limited success. E-cross country remains a bit of a novelty, even with riders like Tom Pidock failing to attract much attention to the sport (did you remember that he’s an eMTB world champion?).