Hello,
Round two of the 2025 Enduro (EDR) World Cup and round one of the Downhill (DH) World Cup take place this weekend in Bielsko-Biała, Poland, with EDR racing on Saturday and DH on Sunday.
Here are some useful links to follow the racing:
Schedule
Live timing (DH and EDR)
How/where to watch the racing
New team and qualifying structure explained
Wildcard teams in Bielsko-Biała
Interactive enduro course map
Our social media
And a few warm-up notes, mostly covering DH (we’ll be back after the race with our full notes newsletters for both races):
- Weather check: Far from the sunshine and beaches of last weekend’s EDR in Italy, temperatures are low and it’s been raining this week (it even snowed during enduro practice on Thursday). There’s more rain forecast for DH qualifying and EDR finals on Saturday and DH finals on Sunday
- New look: This is the first DH event with the new teams structure, wild cards, two-session qualifying system (no more semi-finals) and three-person podiums
- Kids got talent: A rapid new wave of juniors will join those who already established themselves in 2024 – as George Gore Browne mentioned in his pre-race b-zone bullets, Aletha Ostgaard has beaten elite times already and is only just about to enter her first junior year of World Cups; Asa Vermette is sure to challenge the elite times in his second junior World Cup season
- MIA: Dak Norton, who won DH semi-finals here in 2024, isn’t on the start list this week as he continues recovery from a hip injury; 2023 and 2024 junior World Champion Erice van Leuven will miss the race but is back on the bike after her horrific Hardline crash and it sounds like she’ll be back racing soon
- Team swapsies: We will see familiar faces on new setups, including Loris Vergier on Commencal/Muc-Off and Camille Balanche on Yeti / Fox Factory. Plus, there are several transplants from the enduro scene now racing as full-time downhill racers, including Martin Maes, Richie Rude and Hattie Harnden, who raised eyebrows when she recently won the Fort William iXS Euro Cup
- Tech: Who could have missed the Gates Belted Purse campaign that is offering €100k to the first rider to win an elite DH World Cup on a Gates belt drive bike? Several top-tier teams have completely overhauled their bikes so they qualify for the €100k – will the belt-and-box perform? Also, Specialized has a secret new thing around the BB of its forever-prototype bike. And of course, you’re nobody if you aren’t stashing a tuned mass damper somewhere on your bike. On a tangent, have you seen the size of Orbea-FMD’s new truck?
- Flashback: Scroll down for a flashback to Poland 2024 straight from the pages of Hurly Burly, our DH yearbook, with photography by Boris, Sven and Seb
What a time to follow gravity mountain bike racing. Downhill is as competitive and fast-paced as it’s ever been; enduro is back with a fresh surge of energy after last week’s Pietra race.
Hope you enjoy following the racing this weekend on our socials. We’ll be back with our full notes newsletters after the weekend.
Cheers,
James
+the Misspent Summers team
IN BRIEF
Below you’ll find a flashback to the 2024 Bielsko-Biała DH World Cup, as seen in our yearbook, Hurly Burly.
For the full report, analysis and bigger photos, please check out the book.
FURTHER READING
Bielsko-Biala 2024 DH results
Dicey-Icy: Notes from Bielsko-Biała EDR 2024
Long Views: Interviews from Bielsko-Biała DH 2024
Notes newsletters are compiled with the help of many contributors. Thank you to everyone who chips in – we love doing this stuff and you make it possible.
