VTT : Une année de Coupes du Monde… et de JO

This week, the Mountain Bike World Cup kicks off with the first cross-country stage in Brazil. It's sure to be a special year for the discipline's riders, with the Paris Olympics in their sights.

From April 12 to 14, the Maripora stage in Brazil will launch the MTB Cross-Country World Cup. This is the first time the athletes have met in this South American spot, and they will be staying in Brazil for several weeks, as the second stage of the year is also scheduled in the country, in Araxa from April 19 to 21. The riders will then return to Europe for a long series of events until the end of September, when the Lake Placid stage in the USA and the Mont-Sainte-Anne stage in Canada will round off the season.

The cross-country discipline will obviously be marked this year by the Paris Olympic Games in the heart of summer (July 28 for the women's event and July 29 for the men's event). The mountain bike event will take place on the hill of Élancourt in the Yvelines region. The hill rises to an altitude of 231 metres and features a course on which the French shone at the test event last September, winning both the women's (Loana Lecomte) and men's (Victor Koretzky) events. France's mountain bikers will be among the favourites in a discipline that regularly brings them success (remember Julien Absalon's gold double in Athens and Beijing). We'll be counting on reigning world champion Pauline Ferrand-Prévot, Loana Lecomte and Victor Koretzky (who should very probably be selected as one of the two Frenchmen competing in the men's category).

In enduro, where Private Sport Shop ambassador Isabeau Courdurier will be present, the season will get underway a little later than in cross-country. The Frenchwoman will put her world champion title back on the line on May 12 at the Finale Ligure event in Italy. A special feature of this year's competition is that the endurists will stay in Europe for all their events. Finally, downhill mountain biking will kick off its season from May 3 to 5 at the Fort William event in Scotland. Here too, the French will be among the favorites, with Loïc Bruni, overall winner in 2023 and five-time world champion.