Photo Cred: Red Bull TV
World Cup racing is a season-long fight, however World Champs is different.
A singular run worth 0 points for the season. So essentially you either put the whole thing together, or you watch someone else wear the rainbow stripes for the next year.
This year, the Downhill World Championships head to Val di Sole, Italy, and the infamous Black Snake, my favorite downhill trail for just the name alone. Downhill qualifying takes place Friday, August 28, with Elite finals on Saturday, August 29. The Elite Women race at 13:10 local time, followed by the Elite Men at 15:00. If you're not Euro or in the military, that's 1:10pm and 3pm.
In other words, the biggest one-run race of the season is happening on one of the meanest tracks.
Why World Champs Looks So Different
World Championships week always looks a little strange compared with a normal World Cup. Riders who usually share the same team kit suddenly show up wearing completely different colors, bikes get one-off paint jobs, and mechanics start building things that look too nice to throw down a rocky mountain.
Photo Cred: Nathan Hughes / Pinkbike
Bernard Kerr's 2021 Pivot Phoenix was a looker.
There is a reason for the kit change. At World Champs, the national jersey is compulsory, so riders represent their countries rather than racing in their usual trade-team jerseys. The UCI Mountain Bike World Championships have followed that international format since the first official event in Durango, Colorado, in 1990. Shoutout Colorado.
The custom bikes are not required. That part is just an awesome tradition and my favorite part.
Because the national kits replace regular team colors, and because this is a winner-take-all race, brands often build bikes, helmets, and components around each rider’s country. Over time, it has basically turned into a second competition: who has the fastest rider, and who showed up with the coolest bike?
Not every racer receives a completely custom frame, but the top factory athletes usually arrive with something special. If they win, that bike instantly becomes part of downhill history.
The actual prize is even better. A World Champion earns the right to race in the rainbow jersey until the following World Championships, and former champions can display the rainbow bands on their jersey sleeves or collar afterward.
Photo Cred: Ross Bell / Pinkbike
The Black Snake
Val di Sole has hosted the Mountain Bike World Championships three times before, 2008, 2016, and 2021 respectively. It will be its fourth edition in 2026. The recent downhill course measured roughly 2.24km, but that number does not really explain the experience.
The Black Snake is rough, steep, loose, and packed with rocks and roots. As the week progresses, the dirt gets pushed away and new holes, edges, and buried problems start appearing. They actually imported dirt this year to help build up parts of the track which is pretty wild too.
2026 World Champs Black Snake Preview
World Champs Bikes Are Rolling Out
The Trek-Unbroken DH team has already rolled into Val di Sole with a fleet of nation-themed Trek Sessions. Lachie Stevens-McNab, Oisín O’Callaghan, Sacha Earnest, Matt Walker, and Ollie Davis all received fresh paint jobs built around their national identities, along with matching Fox kits and helmets. Matt Walker’s British bike and Oisín’s Irish Session are exactly the kind of bikes that make World Champs week so fun.
Then there is Martin Maes, who has brought something much stranger: a prototype Orbea with a 32-inch front wheel and 27.5-inch rear wheel. Forget matching flag colors, the man has shown up with a front wheel that belongs on a wagon. I am mainly shocked at the rear wheel being 27.5 and not 29. Makes me think of a penny-farthing.
Photo Cred: Pinkbike
It sounds ridiculous, but Val di Sole is exactly the kind of track where a giant front wheel might make sense. More rollover, a calmer front end, and one more way to smooth out a course that is famously terrible at being smooth.
Harriet Harnden’s AON race bike is another one worth watching. She just won her first Elite Downhill World Cup at Les Gets on a belt-driven gearbox bike, the first Elite World Cup downhill victory for that type of drivetrain. Even before any World Champs paint is added, it is already one of the most interesting bikes in the field.
More one-off bikes will appear as the week goes on. The pits are almost as entertaining as the race.
Almost.
Can Anyone Stop Vali Höll?
On the women’s side, the conversation still starts with Vali Höll… again.
Vali has won the last four Elite Downhill World Championships, from 2022 through 2025, and enters Val di Sole with a chance to win five straight. That would draw her level with Rachel Atherton for second on the women’s all-time list, behind Anne-Caroline Chausson. She also wrapped up her fifth World Cup overall title at Les Gets, so form is not exactly an issue.
Jackson Goldstone Knows This Track
Jackson Goldstone comes in as the defending Elite Men’s World Champion, and his history at Val di Sole is very rich.
He won the Junior World Championship here in 2021, then returned to win Elite World Cups on the same track in 2023 and 2025. If you were building a track specifically around Jackson’s strengths, speed, composure, and making ugly terrain look calm, ou would probably end up with something pretty close to the Black Snake.
He also finished third at Les Gets last weekend, so he is arriving with good pace.
Max Alran might be the most interesting challenger. He was the 2025 Junior World Champion and just earned his first Elite World Cup win at Les Gets. One week after standing on the top step in front of the French crowd, he now gets a chance to win rainbow stripes in his first Elite season.
And obviously, I’m watching Asa Vermette.
Asa’s first Elite season already includes a World Cup win and multiple podiums, and he currently sits second in the 2026 rankings. The Black Snake rewards riders who can stay loose, attack rough terrain, and carry speed while everything underneath them is moving. Sounds like Purgatory’s world cup track to me.
Final Thoughts
World Championships is my favorite race of the year because everything feels turned up.
The stakes are higher. The kits look better. The bikes are completely over the top. Riders represent their countries, the pits turn into a custom-paint show, and one run decides who gets to wear the most recognizable jersey in cycling for the next year.
The Black Snake is rough enough to expose any weakness in the bike, the setup, or the rider. A tiny mistake can end the whole thing, but a fully committed run can become something people remember for years.
Can Vali make it five in a row? Can Jackson defend the stripes on a track he has already mastered? Can Max Alran go from Junior World Champion to Elite World Champion in one year? Can Asa bring the rainbow jersey back to the U.S.?
And, almost as importantly, who is going to show up with the coolest bike?
World Champs only happens once a year.
Might as well go all out.
