UCI Mountain Bike World Championships

UCI Mountain Bike World Championships is the world championship series for mountain bike racing, organized by the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI), the governing body of world cycling. It covers the cross-country, downhill and four-cross disciplines, and the first three finishers in each discipline receive gold, silver and bronze medals. The winner of each discipline earns the right to wear the rainbow jersey in races of that discipline until the following year's championships. Unlike most other UCI-sanctioned mountain bike races, riders represent their nations rather than commercial teams. The first edition took place in Durango, Colorado, in the United States in 1990 with only cross-country and downhill events. Over the years the programme changed, with the cross-country team relay added in 1999, dual slalom added in 2000 and replaced by four-cross in 2002, and the four-cross events removed again after the 2021 edition. Trials, marathon and eliminator events have at various times been run alongside or split off into separate championships.