Enduro World Cup: Checking in with the 4 Saffa’s racing this weekend in Italy
Val di Fassa in Italy hosts this weekend’s round of the 2025 Enduro World Cup Series. Here’s a look at the event and who to cheer for!
The fifth round of the 2025 Enduro World Cup Series is taking place this weekend in the idyllic Italian valley of Val di Fassa. Nestled in the majestic dolomite mountains is the quiet town of Canazei that will host the 220+ riders from around the globe that are seeking to test themselves against the clock and each other. Amongst these are four South African rippers looking to stamp their mark on the global stage. We caught up with them to hear about what has brought them to the World Cups and what they are looking to achieve.
If you’re not familiar with the Enduro racing format, it is a discipline that tests the endurance, explosively, and technical skill of the riders racing across multiple downhill “stages” over the course of 1 or 2 days. The climbs to the top of each Stage are not timed, though there is a cutoff time to reach the start and riders are only allowed one run of each stage in practice before the race.
At a World Cup level, the stages can be anything from a short and sharp 200m vertical descent that takes a couple of minutes to complete, or a monster 13+ minute charge down 1000m (or more) of vertical drop and several kilometers of trail. Terrain is technically challenging, mixing high speed bike-ark sections with freshly cut natural lines that throw drops, roots, rocks, and ultra tight corners into the mix. Total stage times at the World Cups are often in excess of 30 minutes of descending, with each race usually comprising of four to seven stages.
This weekend in Val di Fassa, round five takes place across two days of racing (which means two days of practice as well having to pedal all the same climbs). There’s three stages on day one and four stages on day two, totaling 3000m of descending across 15.2km of trails. Climbing wise, they are looking at 2100m (the difference being made up with 2 ski-lift assisted sections). Here’s a breakdown of the stages below.
Stage Breakdown
ENDURO WORLD CUP DAY 1 – Saturday
1103m Ascending (all pedal climbing) // 1108m Descending
Stage 1 – PECEDAC: 1 km / 200m drop
Stage 2 – FASSA AND FURIOUS: 1.37km / 18m+ / 196m drop
Stage 3 – 9.90: 3.5 km / 37m+ / 621m drop
ENDURO WORLD CUP DAY 2 – Sunday
2213m Ascending ( 1000m pedal climbing + 1200m lift) // 1949 m Descending
Stage 4 – TITANS: 3 km / 472.m drop
Stage 5 – GLUHWEIN: 1.2km / 150m drop
Stage 6 – TUTTI FRUTTI: 3.7km / 603m drop
Stage 7 – CIASATES: 1.4km / 232m- drop
After four rounds of racing, the series is currently being led by Ella Connolly in the women’s standings. Ella is a young Brit whose come into her own this season after a couple years of chomping at the heels of the sport’s greats. Slavomir Lukasik in the Men’s is a Polish powerhouse who has quietly made his way to the front of the pack with a big smile and even bigger power numbers. Many of the races have come down to millisecond differences between those on the top step of the podium and the rest of the field – even after up to 40 minutes of race time. The level of competition is as high as you’ll see at the Downhill and XC World Cups.
Riders flying the SA flag
From a South African point of view there are four riders to shout for a this weekend’s World Cup. Luca Zietsman and Keira Duncan have just arrived in Europe for their first international race of the season. Jason Boulle and Keagan Brand have been in Europe since early May and are racing the full 2025 series of Enduro World Cups. Here’s a little background on each of them.
Keira Duncan
BN: Why are you racing the Enduro World Cups?
Keira: “It’s been a dream of mine to race alongside the world’s best since a young age. Over the years I’ve managed to achieve some results that have proven to me that I am capable of it, I just need to put in the work and persevere to get there. It doesn’t happen overnight, or in a season or two but with consistency and determination I believe I can be up there.”
BN: How does racing in Europe compare to racing back home in SA?
Keira: “Racing in Europe is another level, it’s not just one or two levels up but several levels up. It’s a whole lot more competitive and the terrain is far more challenging, but it’s awesome to have the opportunity to rise up to the challenge and see where I line up against the world’s best. I have come a long way since I started racing in 2014 and I know I’ve still got a lot of room to improve, so I am excited for the next few seasons.”
BN: What are your goals for the 2025 season?
Keira: “My goals at the EDR World Cup this season are to make it through each round safely, race my heart out and achieve some top ranking results against the world’s best. Last year I managed to crack a top 50 overall at my first ever World Cup, I’d like to keep chipping away at that and better my results. With World Champs in September, I’ve got three World Cups to work on building myself up. It sure takes a bit of time in Europe to get comfy with the level of racing, building confidence also takes time, so over the next three races I hope to build myself up, achieve some great results, learn as much as I can along the way and claim a great result at World Champs. I wish to participate in all the 2026 World Cups so that would be one of my main goals of this season, to finish strong and acquire support to help me get to every World Cup of 2026. I’m really proud to be representing South Africa on the world stage, along with all the amazing sponsors that back me. NFB Wealth Management & PYGA Bikes have made meaningful contributions to my 2025 campaign, without their support it wouldn’t have been possible for me to race this season. I’m also truly grateful for the support I’ve received through my backabuddy fundraiser. The community that surrounds me has come together and helped me start raising the funds I need to make it all the way through to World Champs in September. Despite being on a shoestring budget, having to carefully manage my budget over the course of my 11 week campaign, the fact that I am able to get to a few World Cups, that’s a big goal already ticked off, I am really stoked and really grateful for all the support I’ve received to be able to fly the SA flag.”
Jason Boulle
BN: Why are you racing the Enduro World Cups?
Jason: “There are a couple of reasons why I’m over here in Europe with my wife, taking on these races. Largest of all, I want to see a South African on the podium of one of these races one day. We have had Alan, Candice, and Greg all show what is possible in their disciplines with good up-and-comers following their lead in XC and Downhill but the trail still needs to be blazed in many regards for South Africans at the World Cups. Undoubtedly, it has also been a dream of mine to travel the circuit and visit these incredible venues and progress my riding as best I can on the World Stage, hopefully bringing back the valuable lessons learned and passing them onto the next generation of South Africa riders who can carry the flag from there.”
BN: How does racing in Europe compare to racing back home in SA?
Jason: “It really doesn’t. The physicality of the stages, the technicality of the terrain, the length of the descents, the time cutoffs for the stage starts, the level of competition all just puts such a higher demand on you mentally and physically, let alone the travel between venues, navigating a foreign culture and country, budgeting for big travel, food, and accommodation expenses. It is a whole other world out here, and I love it. It has been super demanding and challenging at times but I see those as opportunities to grow as a person and as a better rider. The style of trail that we often race here, rough and natural, just reminds me why I love riding my bike. When you execute a technical section with control and confidence it feels so good!”
BN: What are your goals for the 2025 season?
Jason: “This year I firstly wanted to race the full season and bank all of that experience, learning the ropes of how to pull off a full season of racing well, balancing logistics, finances, work, training, recovery and so on. It has already been much more challenging than expected and I was expecting it to be pretty hard haha. In terms of results and performance, I am working towards my first top 30 finish or coming within 105% of the winners time. That seems like a tall order given how the season has gone thus far but I’ll keep on working away at it and trying different approaches to see what works best for me. I’ve received some financial backing from Omega Capital which has been a great blessing + some support from family, and the rest of the expenses my wife and I cover from our monthly income (which doesn’t reach all that far in Europe haha). I’m grateful for all the product support I’ve got from Trek, Leatt, Maurten, Maxxis, Cushcore, Garmin, EVOC, cSixx and Insta360. Every contribution helps make this possible and better performances possible! Lets go and rip these last 3 rounds of racing!”
Keagan Brand
BN: Why are you racing the Enduro World Cups?
Keagan: “To get racing experience to better my skills and become quicker and hopefully get some recognition so I can become a full professional on a Factory Team.”
BN: How does racing in Europe compare to racing back home in SA?
Keagan: “It is so much fun, also quite challenging, especially coming from South Africa where we tend to have much shorter, less physical trails. I love racing the world cups though, it’s awesome learning to increase my performance from race to race.”
BN: What are your goals for the 2025 season?
Keagan: “To win the National Enduro title, Downhill title. I want to get an open Elite World Cup podium and build my way up in elite race.”
Luca Zietsman
BN: Why are you racing the Enduro World Cups?
Luca: “I would say the reason I’m doing World Cups is to see where I stack up against other riders my age in the world and to gain experience while I am still a junior, for the years to come.”
BN: How does racing in Europe compare to racing back home in SA?
Luca: “It’s totally different racing in Europe than back home. It’s so much harder and more physical on your body and bike, and just the pure length of it makes it a very big challenge.”
BN: What are your goals for the 2025 season?
Luca: “Back in SA, I have achieved my goals, which included becoming SA Champ. For the World Cups, I don’t really know what to expect, but I would say that aiming for a top ten or better would be a good goal for me.”
Follow the live timing of the race, here: https://live.ucimtbworldseries.com //