This week, the Whoop UCI Mountain Bike World Series, who took over EWS just three years ago, announced the demise of the Enduro World Cup. The 2026 season, which just finished, will be the last under the UCI+Warner Bros umbrella. It seems they couldnt figure out how to monetize it, or even how to drum up enough attention from the fans.Starting next year, professional enduro racing and pro race management will be a free-for-all, with the UCI still putting on an Enduro World Championship at the end of the season. Who knows how that is going to go!2026 was UCIs last Enduro World Cup. What will 2027 bring?(All photos/Cory Benson)WBD Sports and the UCI believe that Enduros future will be best served through a structure designed specifically around the formats unique identity, one that offers greater flexibility in its operating framework, more room for innovation and a stronger focus on participation and community engagement. -UCI+WBDTry as they might have (or maybe should have?), together the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) and Warner Brothers Discovery Sports (WBD) simply couldnt figure out how to make enduro racing appealing to fans. At least not in a way that was profitable. Thats still a bit baffling to me. Really, they couldnt figure out how to make enduro racing sustainable? Isnt this the type of riding most mountain bikers hope to achieve on the best of days? Pedal up the mountain at your own pace, Ride technical trails downhill as fast as you can, Regroup at the bottom with your riding buddies. Rinse and repeat, as long as your legs and arms will allow!What worked for World Cup mountain bike racing?DHI get that DH is exciting to watch. Its three minutes of intense racing for each rider. The tracks are steep, rough, and almost 100% covered by fixed camera angles and fly-over drones. Plus, new racers drop in every minute or so, so its a constant adrenaline fix. But almost none of us ride bikes like downhillers. Few have 200mm travel bikes. And even if you do take your enduro (cough!) bike to a bike park and ride the DH track, it probably will take you more than 10 minutes to get down that same line. Its just not the same.XCXC is the same, right? First, the UCI, and then more recently WBD, made sure that the repeated loops of modern cross-country courses were well covered on video, so fans at home could follow the action live in real-time. (Assuming they paid the high television subscription costs in their local market.) WBD refined more capable drone coverage, and more live tech data to keep it all interesting. But ultimately, its us regular mountain bikers who watch superlight, superfit athletes racing in twisty circles through the woods at average speeds most of our heart rates could never sustain for up to an hour and a half. Then, they have us Short Track on smoother courses and for just 20-30 minutes when our attention spans were too short on a Friday afternoon after the work week.But really, mountain bikers dont ride anything like XC racers anymore either, right?If I talk to any mountain biker who rides a hardtail or short-travel full-suspension bike these days, its because they like to ride long marathon-like distances. (Remember UCI Marathon XC racing? Thats the one the UCI killed last year!) Is anyone out there repeatedly riding XC loops? OK, lots more people have 100-140mm bikes they could ride on World Cup-level XC courses. And riding buff singletrack quickly is truly one of the greatest feelings to be had on two wheels whether you have a weight weenie XC bike or not. OK, l concede that XC racing is both exciting to watch. And not so dissimilar to where most of us ride mountain bikes.Why didnt enduro work?But, you cant tell me that the ethos of mountain biking isnt more closely linked to the enduro racing concept, where the uphills arent timed, but the technical traverses and downhills are!The problem is, an Enduro World Cup was a nightmare to follow. The UCI said 500 riders were at the final Haute-Savoie round. The Elite racers took on 8 timed stages over 2 days. They covered 84.4km of riding, 4110m of descending (52.4mi & 13,484), spread far and wide over several French mountains. And, they had stage starts staggered 30 seconds apart, which spread them almost 2 hours apart just for the Elite Men & Women. As a journalist trying to follow the racers, and their latest tech, I could maybe make it to catch the top riders at 2 stages in a single race day, and only if I had a fast ebike.Frankly, it was very difficult to follow as a fan. Virtually impossible to watch live. And with so much that could change in a moment, you literally didnt know who was winning until the last stage.So even though this is the type of racing closest to my heart, how I want to ride, even a bike nerd like me didnt follow the racing too closely.What does this mean for 2027 enduro racing?What will that mean for much-loved venues that put together races the last few seasons? Or for the few UCI MTB World Series Gravity Teams that fielded enduro racers? And maybe more importantly, for those ~500 pro and amateur racers who lined up last weekend to race this seasons closer in Haute-Savoie, France?Enduro racing is going to return to the individual race promoters. The locals who know their mountain, and their regional audience. That could be a good thing. Weve heard over the last few years that the UCI/WBD demands (and ever-increasing promotion fees) have been overwhelming. Maybe giving the reins back to the local race promoters is just what the enduro racing scene needs to stay true to its dirtbag grass roots.Fingers crossed that the race organizers step up, take control back of their races, and maybe coordinate with each other to build a reasonable international race schedule.Then, hopefully, the bike industry will be able to step up (continue to step up) to support those race promoters and to sponsor riders, whether on big teams or smaller solo setups. We all know the bike industry has been struggling financially for the past few years. But at least if they arent having to pay the UCI & Warner Bros. big bucks next year, maybe they can support a few more of the little guys & gals.We know that 2027 UCI MTB Enduro & E-Enduro World Champs are secureWhile the UCI Enduro World Cup concludes at the end of the 2026 season, the UCI Mountain Bike Enduro and E-Enduro World Championships will continue and take on even greater significance as the pinnacle events of the format. The UCI World Championships will become the focal point of the global Enduro calendar, bringing together the sports best athletes and serving as the flagship celebration of the Enduro community.This years 2026 Worlds will be in Finale, long seen as the heart of European enduro racing. The 2027 World Champs will be in Haute-Savoie, the same venue as last weeks final World Cup.Other than that, frankly, no one really knows at the moment. But 2027 is going to be a big shift for enduro!Let us know how you feel in the comments! 2026 UCI MTB Enduro World Cup overall Women Elite winners (Photo by Rick Schubert for Whoop UCI MTB World Series)2026 UCI MTB Enduro World Cup overall Men Elite winners (Photo by Rick Schubert for Whoop UCI MTB World Series)Is it about time that the UCI lets enduro continue on its own? Or is it a sad day to lose the financial commitments and season-long focus that comes with racing an EWS or World Cup series? What will happen in 2027, and beyond?Want to read the UCIs full explanation of why they are calling it quits?Check out their complete A New Chapter for Enduro press release, here.