Sportinsider

After almost twenty years of international racing, the Finale Outdoor Region is preparing for the most prestigious event in its enduro history. From 16 to 18 October, it will host the 2026 UCI Mountain Bike Enduro and E-Enduro World Championships, awarding six rainbow jerseys across the two formats.

To decide those rainbow jerseys, Finale has once again chosen to put its territory at the heart of the race, combining the trails that have shaped its history with new lines, recovered sections and terrain that will feature in a racecourse for the first time.

“In almost twenty years of racing, Finale has taken enduro across around 70 different trails. Changing terrain, bringing new areas into the race and continuing to find new lines has always been part of the way we build our courses. For the UCI World Championships, we wanted to go even further, adding several completely new sections and bringing some areas and trails of the Region into a race for the very first time. It is a way of continuing to innovate and develop our territory while staying true to the roots of enduro and to that spirit of exploration that has shaped so many of the stories written here,” explains Francesco Gozio, Race Director.

The programme will see official practice take place on Friday 16 October, followed by the E-Enduro race on Saturday 17 and Enduro on Sunday 18. The Finale Outdoor Region E-Enduro Open and Finale Outdoor Region Enduro Open, announced earlier this year, will take place on the same days.

ENDURO: SCALE, PHYSICALITY AND A REGION THAT KEEPS CHANGING 

The UCI Enduro World Championships course will cover 76 km in total, with 6 timed stages, 2,131 metres of pedalled elevation gain and 2,349 metres of descending within the timed stages.

The course clearly shows the geographical scale of the Finale Outdoor Region, developing across a very wide area.

After an initial shuttle takes the riders quickly up to altitude, the course crosses very different territories, elevations and types of terrain: from the hills above Calice Ligure and Orco Feglino towards Colla San Giacomo and Base NATO, before entering the territory of Mallare, where one of the completely new UCI World Championship stages awaits: Little Dog.

From there, the race continues along the high ridge, progressively moving east. Riders then enter the territory of Vado Ligure, climbing towards Rocca dei Corvi to tackle Blitz, one of the most physical stages of the entire Enduro course.

Blitz is also one of the clearest examples of how the Region’s trail network continues to evolve over time. It combines several sections originally developed in connection with the 2023 UCI Mountain Bike Marathon World Cup and now reinterpreted and linked together for enduro. Rather than a static archive of trails, Finale has a network that is continually used, adapted and reshaped alongside the evolution of the disciplines that ride it.

The race then continues towards Vezzi Portio, before finishing on a familiar reference from Finale’s racing history: DH Men, one of the great classics of racing in the Region.
  The Finale Outdoor Region Enduro Open will race on the same terrain on a dedicated 50.1 km course with 4 timed stages, 1,895 metres of elevation gain and 1,281 metres of descending within the timed stages, sharing several sections with the UCI World Championships course.

E-ENDURO: A DIFFERENT READING OF THE LOWER REGION

The UCI E-Enduro World Championships course will cover 63.2 km in total, with 6 timed stages, 1,665 metres of pedalled elevation gain and 2,087 metres of descending within the timed stages.

While Enduro makes the most of the sheer scale of the Region, the E-Enduro course is built around the density of the trail network in its lower areas. It is not simply the route that changes, but the entire way the territory is used. Starting in the Val Maremola, at the heart of the Region’s e-bike offering, the E-Enduro course becomes a journey by pedal-assist bike across valleys and plateaus.

Finale Ligure, Orco Feglino, Calice Ligure and Noli provide the terrain for a race designed specifically around the characteristics of the e-bike: dedicated liaisons, uphill trail sections, power stages, technical passages and constant changes of rhythm, with road sections kept to a minimum.

Here too, the UCI World Championships have provided an opportunity to work on the existing trail network, recovering old trails, creating new connections and adapting sections specifically to the demands of the format. E-Voland is one of the stages that best represents this approach, linking together very different segments and alternating technical terrain with physical and flowing sections, both uphill and downhill.

Another stage that could make a real difference to the race is Toboga Power. It uses part of the Toboga made famous by the 24H of Finale, before branching onto a new section nicknamed Travel Gum: tight, playful and packed with repeated accelerations, compressions and changes of direction. The route then rejoins the historic trail towards the Toboga Stadium and the Prati di Ferrin, before ending, once again, with the final timed stage on DH Men.

It is precisely this combination that defines the character of the electric race: historic trails and new sections, climbs becoming part of the sporting challenge, and a trail network dense enough to create a competition with an identity of its own rather than simply an electric variation of the Enduro course.




  The Finale Outdoor Region E-Enduro Open will follow a course very similar in overall development to the UCI World Championships route: 61.8 km, 6 timed stages, 1,656 metres of pedalled elevation gain and 1,933 metres of descending within the timed stages, with some differences in the individual race sections.

EXPERIENCE THE UCI WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS ON THE TRAILS AND IN FINALE

To bring spectators close to the race and let them experience the UCI World Championships atmosphere right beside the course, dedicated spectator points have been identified at some of the most interesting sections, while also prioritising locations that are easy to access and can offer services and dedicated activations.

These include Colla San Giacomo, the first Enduro feed zone and spectator point; the Acqua d’Alto picnic area in Vado Ligure, close to the Vezzi Portio border, with a spectator area, DJ set and food truck; and the Prati di Ferrin, at Agriturismo Ferrin, the historic home of the 24H of Finale. The latter two locations are particularly easy for spectators to reach.
  Since the first Finalenduro in 2008, Finale Ligure and the Finale Outdoor Region have continuously hosted some of the events that have accompanied the evolution of international enduro, from the Enduro World Series and Trophy of Nations to the UCI Enduro World Cup. In 2026, the UCI World Championships add another milestone to that record: for the first time, the trails of the Region will award the Enduro and E-Enduro rainbow jerseys.

And once again, it will all unfold in autumn, traditionally the time of year when the enduro season reaches its conclusion in Finale, and this year, the setting for the closing chapter of the international mountain bike season. After the races, riders, teams, spectators and the wider community will come together for the final party, this time with six new rainbow jerseys to celebrate.

What happens at these UCI World Championships will be one of those experiences that, when lived in person, will be talked about for years to come.