The final grains of sand are rumbling about the bottom of the hourglass – it’s nearly time to go racing yet again at the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series. And what a year it’s stacking up to be. For the Endurance stars there’s the small matter of Paris 2024 on the horizon and for the Gravity riders there are new venues aplenty.

But who are the riders in the pack’s crosshairs? Who are the ones that they all want and need to beat? Here are the most dominant names heading into this brand-new season.

Valentina Höll (The YT MOB) DHI (average finishing position last season: 3rd)

The pre-season favourite did a number on her rivals and despite the late surge of Marine Cabirou (Scott DH Factory) it more often than not felt like the only rider capable of stopping Vale was Vale herself. An off-season switch to familiar surroundings (she had competed for six seasons on a YT already) will do little to tarnish her starting this season as the favourite in the Elite women’s field.

Loïc Bruni (Specialized Gravity) DHI (average finishing position: 8th)

The Elite men’s title race was a frenetic affair in 2023 with only one rider (Jackson Goldstone, Santa Cruz Syndicate) winning more than once and three out of seven races going the way of first year elites. But when you are as experienced and as wily as Loïc Bruni, you can use that diffuse spreading of the points to your advantage. The Frenchman won the overall title, his third, with many fans now salivating the resumption of hostilities between Bruni and his great rival, Amaury Pierron (Commencal MucOff by Riding Addiction), this season.

Puck Pieterse (Alpecin-Deceuninck) XCC, XCO

The biggest XC breakthrough since the 29in wheel, Pieterse made 2023 her own. She won the first XCO of the year in the Czech Republic. She added to that in Austria and Italy and then refused to drop below seventh place in either XC format anywhere else. A cyclocross femme fatale, Pieterse is one of the big Olympic favourites this season heading into Paris. There’s speculation that she’ll miss the opening rounds in Brazil to compete in the road classics but Puck is one of those athletes that should she be in attendance at any race she’ll be counted amongst the favourites.

Nino Schurter (Scott SRAM MTB Racing) XCC, XCO

‘Only’ two UCI World Cup wins for Nino last season in XCO races in Lenzerheide and Val di Sole Trentino, but what a season and what a force. Still. The former was an exhibition display of just how untouchable the 37 year-old still is and sealed him the wins record of 34 UCI XC World Cups. Perhaps more worryingly for his competitors it’s the newly-found relaxed air around Schurter these days – he seems to be a rider content in winning titles over a season and not having to bulldoze every round.

Luca Schwarzbauer (Canyon CLLCTV) XCC (average finishing position: 3rd)

Three XCC wins and an almost omnipresence at the front of both XCC and XCO races saw Luca Schwarzbauer lay claim to being one of the breakthroughs of last season. He boasts unreal reserves of power couple with a singularity of focus which few can match. Schwarzbauer’s presence at the front of both formats is now well established, once he starts converting them into wins he will be a real danger man.

Isabeau Courdurier (Lapierre Zipp Collective) EDR (average finishing position: 2nd)

Four wins and then never finished outside of the top four for the rest of the year – that was the story of Isabeau Courdurier’s dominant 2023 campaign. It saw her seal her third Enduro overall title which put her deservedly into the history books. A win this season would put her in a class of one. She has openly talked about targeting the new UCI Enduro World Championships title and then potentially stepping away from the sport to start a family. Courdurier’s clarity of goal could make her even harder to stop than before.

Richie Rude (Yeti Fox Racing Shox) EDR (average finishing position: 4th)

Rude was never outside of the top 10 all season and grabbed one win in Derby before three further podiums. His previous overall titles came by ways of steamroller-like dominance of the 2015 and 2016 seasons. Last time out may not have featured just as many top steps but the relief having come so close to that third crown so many times since was palpable. A top 20 performance on the downhill bike to round out last year in Mont Sainte Anne may be enough to tempt the big man from Connecticut back into the ring this time out.

Flo Espiniera (Orbea Fox Enduro Team) E-enduro (average finishing position: 1st)

One of the most dominant performers of last season with no fewer than three out of five wins, Espiniera has been a beacon of success for the Spanish brand, Orbea. E-enduro remains perhaps the toughest place to win a UCI World Cup thanks to the meteoric pace of technical development in the sport. The Chilean who calls Whistler home will be back to take on 2024 and will remain the rider to beat.

Fabien Barel (average finishing position: 8th)

We’ve all done it. We’ve all got carried away on holiday and ended up taking something further than we meant to. Fabien Barel, two time UCI DHI World Champion, entered the opening round of the last season as ‘something to do’, won it and then, well, one thing lead to another and he ended up winning the UCI E-enduro World Cup overall. Just standard Fab stuff. Just another page in the history books. If he commits to falling down the same rabbit hole this season then he may take some stopping.

Lejla Njemčević (Alle Bike) (average finishing position: 2nd)

A win and two second places all but guaranteed Lelja the title with run round to go but she still clocked a fourth at the final stop in Snowshoe, WV. Njemčević’s exploits last season were one of the big good news stories of the season as she became the first person from Bosnia and Herzegovina to win a UCI World Cup race and then title. Often pugnacious and searingly open in her post-race interviews, she won a lot of fans last time out and will be hopeful of defending that title this season.

Fabian Rabensteiner (Willier-Vittoria Factory) XCM (average finishing position: 5th)

Rabensteiner snatched the title by boxing clever throughout the season having secured his one and only victory in Nove Mesto na Morave at round one. Without doubt he did it the hard way with a few titanic fight backs thrown into the mix but to win a UCI XCM World Cup, never mind a title, is far from easy. A fifth place alongside teammate Samuele Porro at the ABSA Cape Epic will not have been the top step he will have coveted but may just be fuel for the fire for the season opener.

Don’t forget that we are only a couple of weeks away from the opening round of the WHOOP UCI Mountain Bike World Series getting underway in Mairiporã, Brazil 12-14 April. Find out more here.

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