South Korea DH World Cup | Day 1 | Up To Speed

That's right, 2026 is the year to lock in and follow the Downhill World Cup series. My name is Ben Cathro, this is Pinkbike and if you lend me your ear I'd love to explain to you why. First of all, downhill racing is a no holds barred race against the clock from the top of the mountain to the bottom. Riders take their monster truck bikes and ride them across the gnarliest, roughest, most technical terrain and here's the key, the racing is not predictable. There's mechanicals, there's crashes, there's mistakes, you do not know who is going to win which makes it so exciting. This is not a sport where the team with the most resources win, this is one where the skills of the athlete shine and there are a lot of skills on display. Now why is this year such a big deal? Well normally there's only a small handful of riders that could win a race at any time but this year there is a huge crop of junior racers who are moving up into the elite category and they are the fastest we have ever seen. Some of the times from the previous year were actually faster than the elites. The French twins Till and Max Alran, the Kiwi powerhouse Tyler Waite, the first man to win a downhill world cup on a belt driven bike Olly Clark and the American dream Asa Vermette. I cannot wait to see what happens when these young rippers get just dropped in with those big dogs. Talking of big dogs, there are a lot of them and they will not want those young racers to have it easy. The two titans of 2025 Jackson Goldston and Loic Bruni will be back at it again. Jackson the defending champ with the target on his back. Bruni the new dad will be out for redemption following the wild drama that saw him just miss out in the championship last year. Loic Bruni is nowhere to be seen in the start hut. Loic Bruni a DNS does not start. Then there's Lucas Shaw, Loris Vergy, Annemarie Pierron, Troy Brosson, Andy Cobb, Luke Myers-Smith, Ryan Pinkerton, Henry Kiefer, Ronan Dunn. Oh, snapped his shin bone. Ann Moore could take the win on the day and that's not all. Valley Hole who won last year and is on four season championships on the trot looking to get the all-time record and beat Anne-Caroline Chasson. She will be back on a new team on a new bike to try and dominate again. Gracie Hemstreet will be fired up after her best ever season last year and another Red Bull Hardline victory just coming into this race. Tani Seagrave spent all last season developing a bike and battled through injuries yet still won races and is now primed to go all out to show what she can do. There's still Miriam Nicole, Nina Hoffman, Anna Newkirk. There's so many more riders who are going to show us their amazing skills and delight us with some bike riding. If that's not enough, because that's a lot, there's also the junior racing. It always sees some amazing, exciting new riders come in and blow us away with their speed, composure and style. If you haven't guessed already, we are in South Korea for round one of the 2026 Downhill World Cup. We've never been here before. It's a fresh track, only just been built and it looks loose. It looks dusty. It looks like there's going to be so many different lines to pick from. It's going to be so exciting in practice to see riders figuring it out. I actually just got a fire risk warning because it's so dry. It's going to be dusty. It's going to be loose. It's going to be amazing. Are you keen? Yes, I know I am. Head to pinkbike.com. My colleagues will have put an article to show you where you can watch the live racing. Link will be in the description. While you're there, you can enjoy our totally free fantasy league. See if you can pick your perfect team and see if you can beat me. Crucially, I'm not very good. You'll probably beat me. Most crucially, follow us here on YouTube. Subscribe to our Instagram because we will be doing daily videos documenting all the tech, getting all the gossip, doing breakdowns of the track, chatting to the riders and bringing you all the action for every round. I'll see you there. Let's go. I better go because the race starts soon.