Danny Hart, Vinny T and French SnowBike champion Pierre Thevenard are on the start list for the inaugural Snow Bike World Championships taking place this weekend in Châtel, but there’s no Fabio Wibmer on the books.

This is a new one for the UCI, and comes well ahead of the gravity race season proper. There are two events taking place at the Snow Bike Worlds, both based on Alpine skiing, and taking place on the Aity and Stade Linga pistes over some 2,000m of snow… which makes it all the more crazy that Fabio Wibmer isn’t there. Perhaps he’s saving himself for the Red Bull Hardline, or still recovering from his run down the famous kitzbuhel ski course for The Streif.

Fabio Wibmer backflips onto the Kitzbuhel ski course

The Super G has riders go off at 40 second intervals, slalom between ski poles and generally send the jumps and drift the corners as best they can. The Super G is then used as the quali for the Dual Slalom, which is run just like a regular dirt-based event, where riders go head to head.

Other big names taking part are 4X legend Scott Beaumont, EDR racer Morgane Charre and downhiller Veronika Widmann. Our money’s got to be on Thevenard though, or potentially Vinny T, who like Fabio Wibmer has a background in going stupid fast on the snow. 

So far there are 50 elite men in the lineup, and seven women, with participation to be capped at 15 riders per gender per nation. The final start list is expected to be released later this week.

How to watch the Snow Bike World Championships

Those of us desperate to watch some gravity racing in the off-season might be disappointed though, because as far as we can tell the event is not being broadcast. The racing takes place on Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th, with the Super G starting at 10.30am on Saturday. Then Sunday’s Dual Slalom begins at 9am on Sunday.

Hardline goes downunder this year for the first time, watch it live through Red Bull

How to watch Red Bull Hardline Australia 

Never fear though, we’re now only a few weeks away from the first proper gravity racing of the 2024 season, with the Aussie round of the Red Bull Hardline taking place on February 24. It’s the first time since Hardline’s beginning some 10 years ago that a new venue has been used, although the UK round of the event will still take place in the Dyfi Valley as usual, on June 1-2.

Hardline downunder will be at the Maydena Bike Park in Australia, and broadcast by Red Bull from 8am on the 24th. If you want to watch it the converge is live through Red Bull across the world. But if you’re travelling in the US Red Bull coverage won’t work though thanks to geo-blocking restrictions, so it’s a good idea to subscribe to a VPN service.

If you’re not in the UK then live streaming the events is still an option – all you have to do is download and install a VPN and use a location inside the UK to watch the broadcast live as if you were back home.

Setting up a VPN is simple – just download, install, open the app and select your location.

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