UCI gets behind Enduro mountain bike discipline

Geoff Kabush (3Rox Racing) is back from racing an enduro event in France

Geoff Kabush (3Rox Racing) is back from racing an enduro event in France (Image credit: Epic Rides)

The UCI will add Enduro racing to its list of mountain bike disciplines, effective in 2014, as decided during a Management Committee meeting held just prior to the UCI Cyclo-cross World Championships this weekend.

Don't expect an Enduro World Cup or international series of the sort now run for cross country, downhill and marathon disciplines. "No World Cup or any other series are foreseen: [the] UCI will simply recognize the enduro format and the events which already exist as well as those which will be organized in the future," the UCI's Peter Van den Abeele told Cyclingnews.

Enduro racers already have an Enduro World Series, which is in its inaugural year this season. It is run by former UCI technical delegate Chris Ball, who has previously advocated for the UCI to get onboard the Enduro train.

2013 four cross Worlds on its own

Following its Management Committee meeting, the UCI also announced that 2013 Four Cross Worlds would be held in Leogang, Austria, instead of Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, where the rest of the 2013 UCI Mountain Bike and Trials World Championships is happening.

"Four Cross Worlds will take place in Leogang on September 21-22: decision to move that part of the event from Pietermaritzburg to Austria - where there is a track, the discipline is very popular and participation will surely be higher - was made in order to avoid the organizer in South Africa to build a new track just for one competition maybe with very few participants," said Van den Abeele.

It will be the second consecutive year that four cross Worlds are held in Leogang.

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Sue George is an editor at Cyclingnews.  She coordinates all of the site's mountain bike race coverage and assists with the road, 'cross and track coverage.