Photo Epic: The Top 2023 Racing Moments Through the Lens of Pinkbike's Photographers
2023 was a year of new beginnings and a fresh start for World Cup racing. With Warner Brothers Discovery taking on the challenge of broadcasting and running the show, we saw a race season like no other before. Along with the new race organisers, 2023 saw plenty of changes on and off the track. These changes spanned the biggest shake-up in the downhill racing format for many years, with the introduction of semi-finals to the EWS series graduating into a fully-fledged World Cup event. Throughout a season filled with unpredictable racing and behind-the-scenes chaos, Pinkbike's photographers captured the action in glorious detail.
2023 was an incredible year to be a racing fan, with every stop of the World Cup circus spoiling race nerds with top performances and plenty of fresh faces stepping onto the podium. Not only did racing this past year deliver wild moments, but we also got unprecedented results as Nino Schurter shattered the win record of Julien Absalon, Rachel Atherton made a triumphant return and the future of downhill racing has very much arrived as first-year elites stood up and challenged the prowess of the World's best.
Racing doesn't get much better than the spectacle we saw in 2023, so in celebration of the past season we have pulled together our top moments from the year. A huge thanks to Dave Trumpore, Ross Bell, Nathan Hughes and Andy Vathis for capturing these incredible moments and Dave Trumpore for the hard job of selecting only a few images out of many great shots for this collection. It's been an amazing year to have the pleasure of covering racing for Pinkbike and I can't wait to kick it all off again with even more coverage next year. Until then, here are our top moments from the 2023 race season.
Rachel Atherton kicked off the downhill World Cup season in serious style as she made a big return to downhill racing.
Straight out the gate and back onto the top step of the podium. Rachel proved in Lenzerheide that she is one of the sport's greats once again.
Rachel quickly silenced any pre-season critics about how she would fare against the current crop of top elite women as she went fastest at round one by around half a second.
It was back to business as usual for Rachel as she impressively never dropped outside the top two through qualifying, semi-finals and finals in Lenzerheide. A week later she would be back on the podium again with third place in Leogang, proving her win wasn't a one-off show of strength.
It's truly impossible to imagine how hard it must have been for Rachel Atherton to come back to racing after already achieving so much. With her round-one victory, Rachel clearly showed she is still one of the best.
With the incredible weight of expectation on his back Jordan Williams brushed it off to come out of the off-season and into his first elite year with a bang.
Winning a World Cup is no easy task but Jordan Williams managed it at the first time of asking.
Now the pressure of winning off going forward, Jordan can relax and work on finding his way back to the top step of the podium.
A tough year didn't stop Jackson Goldstone from taking 2nd in the overall and securing the title of the winningest elite male rider of the year.
Jackson's win in Val Di Sole cemented his confidence for the rest of the season as he went on to close out the season with a fairytale victory in Canada.
Even mid-season surgery couldn't slow Jackson down as he fought back a showed a consistent level of speed across the season.
The golden boy of Downhill proved he deserved the pre-season hype making himself a threat for all of the big names in downhill racing.
Jackson made regular podium appearances in 2023 as he went inside the top five on five occasions throughout the season.
All eyes are on Jackson in 2024.
Another amazing comeback story in 2023 was Marine Cabirou returning to her past World Cup winning ways as she topped the podium in Les Gets and Snowshoe and secured third in the overall standings.
After last winning a World Cup during the pandemic season in 2020 Marine has struggled through multiple crashes and injuries. The second half of this year saw her right back at the sharp end challenging Nina Hoffmann and Vali Höll for race wins.
Following multiple setbacks and spending significant time away from top-level racing it can be find to find a way back to the top. Just like Rachel Atherton, Marine Cabirou proved she has incredible mental strength as well as physical form.
Marine Cabirou was the only rider to take more than one victory away from Vali Höll this year.
Vali Höll was the most dominant force in downhill this season as she secured the highest number of wins, the overall title and a back-to-back World Champs victory.
Vali has struggled to find consistency and battle the pressure of winning in the past. After her performances in 2023, it seems she has finally found the winning combination of speed and consistency to be a constant threat for the win.
From the second stop of the series until the final round at MSA Vali Höll proved to be an unstoppable force laying down top performances not only in finals but was rapid in qualifying sessions and semi-final races.
While there was disappointment in Les Gets for the Austrian World Champ she was still one of the fastest riders of the weekend there with splits unmatched by other riders in the sessions leading up to finals.
With a World Champs title and the World Cup overall to her name Vali Höll couldn't have done much more in 2023.
New Zealand has had an incredible year for racing in 2023 and there was no better time for the nation's riders than the World Championships in Scotland.
Sam Gaze laid down the power in the XCC Short Track World Champs to secure the title against hard-charging Victor Koretzky and the race favourite Tom Pidcock. Sam was not happy with one World title as he almost secured another in the Olympic XC format taking second place behind Tom Pidcock.
The best showing from the NZ riders this year was the perfect podium performance at Fort William for World Champs where there was a Kiwi clean sweep in the Junior Women's racing.
Erice Van Leuven was on a tear this year and after taking the World Champs title was in contention for an overall World Cup win. Erice will be a rider to watch next year.
When talking about the performance of New Zealand riders it is impossible to ignore the breakout year of Samara Maxwell.
Samara Maxwell's rise from starting the year as a privateer to taking the World Champs XC title and then signing a deal with the Rockrider Ford team is what makes World Cup racing great.
On top of the World. The second half of the season was dominated by the power of Samara Maxwell. With the backing of a big team, she could be the next XC superstar.
As new faces rise to the top it's becoming harder and harder to take a World Cup win. No matter who the challengers are if there's one rider who can handle the pressure of winning a race it's Loic Bruni.
Loic Bruni battled hard all season only dropping outside the top five three times with 50% of the World Cup season spent inside the top three.
A win on home soil saw Loic move on from a string of disappointing results and end the season on a high.
2023 was a year of unpredictable chaos for many except Loic who always managed to be at the sharp end. Even his wet weather run, while not high up the results, was a masterclass in making the best of a tough situation.
After a tough 2022 season Loic was back to his winning ways in 2023.
Loic may have lost his World Champs title but he still ended the year on a high.
Puck Pieterse truly made her mark on the XC world this season as she often had the power to outpace the World's best.
The depth of talent in the Women's XC field seems to grow bigger every year making it an amazing achievement to reach the dominance of Puck this year.
Puck was not just a dominant force in the Olympic discipline she was also an all-out weapon in the XCC format.
When your season-worst result is a 7th place you can feel happy knowing you had an incredible year.
She not only secured the XCC overall title...
Puck also took the overall title in the XC World Cup series. Heading into an Olympic year she certainly carries the winning momentum.
Ever since his win at the opening round of the 2022 season in Brazil Nino Schurter has been so close to passing Julien Absalon's all-time World Cup win record. Finally, in a dream come true for the Swiss rider he managed to make it 34 wins at his home race in Lenzerheide.
Nino's record-breaking Lenzerheide win was a showcase of strength, determination and unmatched skill as he stamped his authority over the Elite Men's XC field playing an excellent tactical game.
After multiple failed attempts over a year of racing it will have meant even more to Nino to achieve the record-breaking win at home.
Not happy with just 34 wins Nino made sure to add another victory to his name in Val Di Sole making the new record even more impossible for those even thinking of trying to match it.
There seems to be no sign of Nino slowing down just yet as his technical skill and raw power are hard to beat when he is having a good day.
2023 didn't just see Nino break records as he also picked up another World Cup overall title to add to his already stacked list of achievements.
We can't talk XC racing without talking about Tom Pidcock. Tom may not race many top-level XC races but when he does he is a force to be reckoned with.
Tom's display of technical prowess and outright pedalling power at the World Champs was an incredible sight and put him in a class of his own compared to the World Cup regulars.
A win at home for the multi-discipline talent. We hope he will stick around XC racing for a little while longer.
Not many riders can race five XC races in a season and take three wins and not place outside the top five.
Another year, another set of rainbows for Pauline Ferrand Prevot.
While she may not have had her best season of racing in 2023 there's no denying Pauline is potentially the best rider on the circuit at peaking for a specific event. We have seen over the past few years when Pauline sets her sights on an event she rarely misses.
At World Champs she started a steady pace quickly building herself a huge lead of over a minute back to Loana Lecomte in the second half of the race.
Pauline not only added another XCO title to her name, but she made it a perfect week in Scotland as she won the XCC event too.
It was a long time coming for Andreas Kolb as 2023 saw him finally take a World Cup victory and it was all the more sweeter to be achieved at home in Austria.
After not performing his best in finals at round one Andreas went all-out in Leogang to take the win.
What a day for Austrian downhill racing as Andreas Kolb made it a perfect weekend in the elite races following up Vali Holl's first win of the season.
The crowds were wild although maybe not as wild as the French fans in Les Gets.
When it comes to Les Gets there was another well-deserved fresh winner as Benoit Coulanges finally crossed the line fastest. 2023 brought plenty of new winners and Benoit's win is right up there as one of the wildest of the year.
The event security had no chance once the light went green as Benoit crossed the line.
Absolute scenes in Les Gets as the French fans never fail to disappoint.
Battling the slick conditions Charlie Hatton found time where no one else could at Fort William to take the 2023 World Champion title at home.
As one of the many fairytale wins this season Charlie Hatton crossed the line fastest in Fort William after a truly impressive run in unfavourable conditions.
Charlie Hatton has been on the cusp of a win for many years and it was amazing to see him finally top the timing sheet at the biggest race of the year.
A great day for UK race fans. Two British riders on the podium along with two riders racing UK-made bikes.
We wait years for a King Charles and two come along at once.
Another rider who finally took an elite win this year was Oisin O'Callgahn. Oisin showed plenty of promise while racing Juniors, but just couldn't quite put together the puzzle of an elite World Cup win.
Come Snowshoe this year and the greasy rocks were bested by the two Irish riders of Oisin and Ronan Dunne who made it an Ireland one-two in the USA. The best race weekend ever for Ireland at a downhill World Cup.
Oisin and Ronan were in disbelief after their historic achievement of placing Ireland on the map for downhill racing.
After a dry spell of overall wins, the 2023 season saw Richie Rude back on top of enduro racing after having to settle as the runner-up for two years.
Richie Rude had a consistent pace throughout the season that was tough to match.
After last winning the overall EWS title in 2016, Richie pushed hard this year to become the first EDR World Cup overall winner.
2023 was not just a great year of enduro racing for Richie as he also turned his hand back to downhill racing and even managed to make the big show at the final round of the year in Mont-Sainte-Anne.
Richie will want to carry this momentum into next year's European EDR World Cup series.
A new bike wasn't slowing Emmy Lan down this year as she continued to be the rider to beat in U21 enduro racing this season.
Emmy piloted her Forbidden Druid trail bike to five wins in 2023.
There was some tough competition from the U21 women's field this year, although it's still tricky to match Emmy's speed across a full day of racing.
It was a great year for the Forbidden team as Rhys Verner also took his first win and was in the running for the overall title.
No matter what the series is called, the top level of enduro racing remains controlled by French riders, especially by riders named Isabeau Courdurier and Morgane Charre.
Isabeau Courdurier has been on top of the spot for years and no matter what happens or where the racing is, she is a safe bet for a top performance.
Morgane Charre was the only rider to take more than one win away from Isabeau and matched the overall winner's achievement of never placing outside the top five at any race this season.
Only Bex Baraona was able to stop the season from being completely owned by the two riders from France as the pair traded blows in the overall standings across the seven-stop series.
Morgane Charre may not have taken the overall, but she still finished the year with a second race win.
Isabeau makes it back-to-back overall titles after winning the last-ever EWS series in 2022.
While the women's EDR race series was a close battle between two riders, the men's racing was hyper-competitive as the series went down to a nail-biting four-rider showdown in Chatel.
Jesse Melamed was the only rider to win more than one race this season, although it wouldn't be enough to take the overall away from Richie Rude.
What a race from Rhys Verner in Leogang. The Canadian rider had a breakout season with multiple career-best results.
A well-deserved drink for Rhys Verner as he added to the racing pedigree of the new Forbidden Druid with his first World Cup win.
After being near the top of the sport for so long, Matt Walker finally brought it home with his first World Cup win this season.
Another first-time winner was the fast French racer Youn Deniaud.
A French podium sweep in Loudenvielle, we could see France become a powerhouse in men's racing as it already is for the women.
What a start to the season in Tasmania. World Cups often end up centring on European rounds, but if the opening rounds of the EDR showed us anything, it's that a global series can offer unmatched racing when at the right venues.
The bar was set high from the off as the EDR kicked off its first season, a level of racing not met by the later European rounds.
Luke Meier-Smith made the most of a race at home and was the first first-year elite to take a win this year.
The greasy course in Derby provided plenty of carnage.
The unique racing in Derby is hard for European ski resorts to beat.
The back-to-back rounds in Maydena and Derby offered a completely different challenge for riders at each round.
Hopefully, it won't be too long before EDR racing makes the long trip to Tasmania. Luckily, we have the new Hardline series back here early in 2024.
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It's not that there isn't enough money to support these events and riders. Its's that the people profiting are always needing more and more and "growth" or whatever the f*ck.
Point being, it's not on the same folks who are already being made money on to spend even more money. We good.
In this day & age of paying through the nose for EVERYTHING.
NO
Red Bull coverage wasn't free.... it was paid for by fat people buying crack fizzy pop.
Please keep the stories about all the riders, those managing a first top20 in carreer (for instance), or privateers, or whatever you want... They are worth words and photos as much as podium guys !
Photography-wise it's a bit harder, our photo team gets pulled in a lot of different directions, and depending on race schedules it can be tough to get everything. It's difficult to justify not prioritizing the elite men and women when we are forced to choose. Unsatisfying as it is, everything's a compromise.