To close out 2023 we have looked back through the result sheets from this year's DH, XC and EDR World Cups to find out which bikes have collected the most wins across Elite, Junior, U23 and U21 races. Take a look at our findings after we crunched the numbers from the 2023 season.
Downhill
1: Commencal Supreme - 7 WinsTopping the list of race-winning World Cup downhill bikes in 2023 is the Commencal Supreme, with seven wins from five riders across the season.
While the Supreme only secured two elite wins under Thibaut Daprela and Benoit Coulanges, ranking joint third for elite race victories, it was the best bike for Junior racing. Totalling five wins, the Supreme was the fastest junior race bike in 2023, going one better than the GT Fury piloted by Ryan Pinkerton.
Rider Breakdown:Erice Van Leuven - 3 Wins
Lisa Bouladou - 1 Win
Léo Abella - 1 Win
Thibaut Daprela - 1 Win
Benoit Coulanges - 1 Win
2: Trek Session - 6 WinsThe title of being the second fastest downhill bike in 2023 goes to the Trek Session with six race wins. Vali Höll ended her time with Trek by securing four race victories across the season, equalling Ryan Pinkerton's final year with GT and making the Session the best-performing elite race bike.
In the Junior racing, the Session picked up race wins under Bodhi Kuhn and Sacha Earnest (after she had picked up a win earlier in the season onboard a Transition TR11).
Rider Breakdown:Vali Höll - 4 Wins
Bodhi Kuhn - 1 Win
Sacha Earnest - 1 Win
3: Santa Cruz V10 - 5 WinsThe final spot in the top three winning downhill bikes goes to the Santa Cruz V10. Securing five World Cup wins across the 2023 season was the second-best elite race bike, just one win behind the Trek Session's total of four. In the Junior race series, the Santa Cruz bookended the season with Christian Hauser winning round one and Nathan Pontvianne wrapping up the year in MSA with a race victory.
Rider Breakdown:Jackson Goldstone - 2 Wins
Christian Hauser - 1 Win
Nina Hoffmann - 1 Win
Nathan Pontvianne - 1 Win
XC & XCC
1: Liv Pique & Canyon Lux - 9 WinsMoving onto XC racing, there is a tie for the top spot as both the Liv Pique and Canyon Lux secured nine race wins across the XC and XCC World Cup series in 2023. The Liv Pique only saw one rider collect its race wins as Ronja Blöchlinger had a perfect eight-win season in XCC and finished the XC series with a win at MSA.
The Canyon Lux saw a wider range of victories to reach its nine-win total as three riders added to its list of 2023 accomplishments. Puck Pieterse was the most successful rider on the Canyon as she piloted the race bike to one XCC win and three World Cup XC wins. Luca Schwarzbauer wasn't quite able to win an XC World Cup this year, but he was unstoppable in the short XCC format putting the Lux on the top step of the podium three times. Loana Lecomte was the final rider to win on a Canyon Lux as she was the fastest in two XC races. Interestingly, the Canyon Lux is the only bike in the top three without any U23 race wins.
Liv Pique // Rider Breakdown:Ronja Blöchlinger - 8 XCC Wins / 1 XC Win
Canyon Lux // Rider Breakdown:Puck Pieterse - 1 XCC Win / 3 XC Wins
Loana Lecomte - 2 XC Wins
Luca Schwarzbauer - 3 XCC Wins
2: Specialized Epic World Cup - 8 WinsThe first of two spots for the Specialized Epic in the top three XC race bikes is the newly released Epic World Cup, with eight race victories. The Epic World Cup saw Adrien Boichis win four races with an even split between XCC and XC wins. Laura Stigger was the only other rider to win on the new Epic model, going fastest in three XCC elite races and winning the Snowshoe XC World Cup.
Rider Breakdown:Adrien Boichis - 2 XCC Wins / 2 XC Wins
Laura Stigger - 3 XCC Wins / 1 XC Win
3: Specialized Epic Evo - 7 WinsFalling just behind the new model, the standard Specialized Epic still made it into this year's top three as its more conventional design topped the podium seven times. Victor Koretzky was the best rider racing this bike as he won three back-to-back XCC races to close out the season and even had a perfect weekend at the Les Gets round. Adrien Boichis not only mastered the new Epic World Cup but also was fast on the standard Epic winning three more XCC races with this bike.
Rider Breakdown:Victor Koretzky - 3 XCC Wins / 1 XC Win
Adrien Boichis - 3 XCC Wins
Enduro
1: Lapierre Spicy - 7 WinsDespite Lapierre seeming to be testing a new enduro bike the current Spicy is still very much a race-winning machine as Isabeau Courdurier and Lisandru Bertini made it the fastest enduro bike in 2023. The Spicy also placed joint third with the Commencal Surpeme in the overall World Cup winning bike rankings.
The 2023 season saw Isabeau Courdurier just beat teammate Lisandru Bertini in wins as she crossed the line fastest at four rounds compared to Lisandru's three top U21 finishes.
Rider Breakdown:Isabeau Courdurier - 4 Wins
Lisandru Bertini - 3 Wins
2: Forbidden Druid - 6 WinsFor 2023, the second-fastest enduro bike is actually a trail bike as the new Forbidden Druid V2 totalled six wins across the season. Emmy Lan was the top enduro rider for wins this season winning U21 races five times on the Druid. Rhys Verner also picked multiple career-best finishes with the Druid and won the Leogang round of the EDR series. It will be interesting to see if the whole Forbidden team ride the Druid in 2024.
Rider Breakdown:Emmy Lan - 5 Wins
Rhys Verner - 1 Win
3: Canyon Strive - 4 WinsIn the final top-three spot is the Canyon Strive, with two racers taking two wins each in 2023. Sascha Kim was rapid in the U21 racing winning the opening two Australian rounds before Jesse Melamed would add to the bike's victories in Pietra Ligure and Chatel.
Rider Breakdown:Sascha Kim - 2 Wins
Jesse Melamed - 2 Wins
Overall Rankings
Isabeau is a weapon, it sure as hell isn’t the hot garbage can of a bike she is riding.
Case in point: you sponsor the entire lower ranks of the field with your bike, but never achieve a single win.
I agree, the absolute numbers are not totally accurate, but I suspect they're the best we can get.
Nah, wait… that’s a nan.
You’re overbiked at your local enduro and V10’s are ugly.
Still having that extra travel will probably safe you from a fall and take care of your body(knees, feet) on a HARD hit
The winning bike is whichever the winning racer happens to be on.
The fact that someone was winning in a 130mm trail bike does say something about the capability of that bike. Most companies make a 130mm trail bike but you don’t see most other racers. choosing to ride it, which suggests that in general they don’t see their sponsors shorter travel bikes as being capable of winning.
The takeaway is: Riders win races, bikes don’t.
Equipment definitely matters less at amateur races though.
Grinds my gears when people use a finer scale (numeric with decimals) when the data is straight up integers. Maybe PB is getting in their end of year figure quota!
65% of the Dutch cycle at least once a week.
Americans are generally lazy shites, check.
So in terms of market that’s still much bigger although diluted.
looks wrong
For the price of a new bike/random gear, manufacturers could have grown their audience by more than so many other marketing strategies. Taking out ads in print magazines? Paying to have pinkbike run a banner ad? To tell you the truth, I’m not sure I remember the last time I really saw a decent marketing campaign from a mountain bike company.
If your needing you would have to weight the scoring appropriately.
How do you weight elite men v juniors or v women's.
The results clearly demonstrated that the probability of a win in elite men's is lower than elite female for example.
What would the real score be if a statistician were involved?
Probably... There isn't a winner because the data set is too small to draw any conclusions.
So.... Nothing wins!
All these bikes are going to be there or there abouts. Pinkerton on the GT is a prime example of this.
Come on pinkbike, I’d rather wait a month for a good read (or two months for a copy of dirt magazine as I recall) than be trickle fed nonsense. I miss the dirt magazine days of mtb media.