Les Gets Downhill World Cup 2026

The 2025 round ran from 28–31 August and was decided by the weather. Days of rain left the Les Gets track running deep, sticky mud, and the juniors took the worst of it on finals morning.

• Elite WomenGracey Hemstreet from Marine Cabirou and Valentina Höll
• Elite MenRonan Dunne, his second World Cup win
• Junior WomenRosa Zierl
• Junior MenMax Alran

Cabirou came through the repechage and rode brilliantly in front of a home crowd, while Höll set the pace up top before losing the win in the final sector. Proof that Les Gets can be raced in any conditions and still deliver.

One of the wettest and most challenging downhill races of the season. Despite relentless rain, thousands of fans packed the mountainside.

• Elite MenAmaury Pierron, denying Greg Minnaar after a long spell in the hot seat
• Elite WomenEleonora Farina, her first World Cup win, from Mille Johnset and Tahnée Seagrave

Seagrave's third place came after a heavy crash, and Farina's win in those conditions was one of the stories of the year.

A French day in front of a French crowd.

• Elite MenBenoît Coulanges, who lives just down the valley, with Loris Vergier third
• Elite WomenMarine Cabirou, her first win since 2020, after Vali Höll crashed early

Coulanges taking an emotional first World Cup win a few kilometres from home is still one of the loudest finish areas we've stood in.

Not a World Cup round but the moment that made this venue famous. Loïc Bruni, Amaury Pierron and Loris Vergier completed a clean sweep of the Elite Men's podium at the World Championships.

Tens of thousands of spectators created scenes closer to a football final than a bike race, and the Gendarmerie ended up celebrating on the podium with the riders. If you were there, you remember it.

The event runs from Thursday 20 to Sunday 23 August 2026, from around 09:00 to 18:00 each day. Thursday is practice and timed training. The three race days are Friday 21 August for cross-country short track, Saturday 22 August for downhill, and Sunday 23 August for cross-country Olympic.

The Elite Men's downhill final starts at 14:10 on Saturday 22 August and runs to about 15:45, with the awards ceremony straight after at 15:45. The Elite Women's final is earlier the same day at 13:00, and the Junior finals start at 11:30. If you only have one afternoon, arrive by 11:00 and you will catch every downhill final.

Yes. General trackside access is free across all four days, for the downhill and the cross-country. There is no entry ticket and no wristband to buy. A paid VIP hospitality area is available through the Les Gets tourist office if you want a seated view and food included, but nobody needs it to watch the racing.

You only pay for lifts if you want to ride yourself, or want a quick way up the hill instead of walking.

The downhill course runs down Mont Chéry, the quieter mountain on the opposite side of the village from the main Les Gets bike park. It is a short walk from the centre of Les Gets to the finish area. The cross-country circuit and the event village are on the Les Gets side.

Geneva is the nearest airport, roughly 1 hour 15 to 1 hour 30 by road. From Morzine it is about a 10 to 15 minute drive over the Col de l'Encrenaz road, or a short bus hop.

Race weekend parking in Les Gets fills early and the village roads are busy. If you are staying in Morzine, use the bus or get dropped off rather than driving in for finals day.

Morzine is the better base for most people. It is 10 minutes from Les Gets, has far more accommodation, bars and restaurants, and sits at the centre of the Portes du Soleil lift network so you can ride Morzine, Châtel, Avoriaz and Champéry as well as Les Gets.

Les Gets itself has limited beds and they go early for race week at a premium. We have catered chalets, self-catered apartments and hotels in Morzine, with flexible arrival days in hotels if you only want the long weekend.

Yes, and this is the bit people get wrong. The racing is concentrated on one hill, so the rest of the Portes du Soleil runs as normal. We measured lift queues at their 2024 peak and the longest we could find was 17 minutes, outside of the Fox Hit The Park event, and that was rare.

Some individual runs on Mont Chéry are closed for the course, and there are usually short closures around the cross-country circuit, but the Les Gets bike park proper, Morzine, Châtel and Avoriaz are all open.

Not during race week. The course is closed to the public from build through to pack-down, and it is fenced and marshalled.

Sections of it form part of the Mont Chéry trail network at other times of the season, so a good deal of the terrain is rideable outside of the event, though never in the full race configuration. If riding the venue matters to you, come back later in the season.

No. You can walk up the hillside and watch from the trackside sections for nothing, which is what most of the crowd does. The finish arena and event village are at the bottom and reachable on foot from the village.

A pedestrian lift ticket saves the climb if you want to get up to the top sections quickly, and a full bike pass makes sense if you are riding as well as watching. Prices and opening hours are set by Les Gets each season, so check the resort site before you travel.

The finish arena has the big screen, the commentary and the atmosphere, and is where you want to be for the last few riders of the Elite Men's final. It also gets very full, so get in position early.

The steep wooded sections higher up the course are where the crowd traditionally packs in with cowbells and flares, and where you see the real speed and the mistakes. Walking up the hill in the morning and working your way down through the day is the standard approach.

For cross-country on Sunday, the circuit is short and lapped, so you can move between the climb and the technical descents and see the riders repeatedly.

Warner Bros. Discovery holds the rights. In the UK and Ireland the racing is on TNT Sports, with streaming via HBO Max and discovery+. Across the rest of Europe it is on Eurosport. UK streaming plans start around £25.99 a month on an annual term, more month by month.

Free highlights and course previews go up on the UCI Mountain Bike World Series YouTube channel. Check the official where to watch page for your country, as broadcast partners change.

DHI is downhill. One rider at a time, flat out down a steep, technical descent, fastest time wins. Runs last a few minutes.

XCO is cross-country Olympic. A mass-start race over several laps of a shorter circuit, mixing brutal climbs with technical descents, lasting well over an hour.

XCC is cross-country short track. A fast, aggressive 20 to 25 minute sprint race on a tight circuit, used to set the grid for the XCO. It is the best entry point if you have never watched cross-country.

Les Gets hosts all three across the weekend, which is unusual and a big part of why the venue is a favourite.

Yes. Les Gets runs a full event village with an expo area of major bike brands, kids' activities, live music and evening entertainment. It is genuinely family-friendly and it is free to wander round.

The resort also recruits volunteers each year if you want to be part of running it rather than just watching.

Yes, and it is worth planning around. The UCI Enduro World Cup season finale is at Morillon on 14 to 16 August 2026, five days before Les Gets, with the overall enduro titles decided there. Morillon is in the Grand Massif, about an hour from Morzine.

Two World Cup rounds in Haute-Savoie inside ten days. If you can take the time, a longer stay in Morzine covers both with a week of riding in between.

Two reasons. The history: Les Gets has hosted World Cup and World Championship racing since the 1990s, with Nicolas Vouilloz, Steve Peat and Anne-Caroline Chausson all part of its downhill story, and it has been a fixture for both gravity and endurance racing since 2019.

And the crowd. Thousands of fans line the course top to bottom with cowbells, chainsaws and smoke flares. The 2022 World Championships produced an all-French Elite Men's podium in front of a home crowd and it remains one of the loudest scenes the sport has seen. 2026 is also the final European round of the cross-country and downhill World Cups, so the standings will be live.