What It Takes To Host a World Cup in 2025

Downtime - The Mountain Bike Podcast

Downtime MTB

Sports, Leisure, Fitness, Health & Fitness, Hobbies, Wilderness

4.9 • 628 Ratings

🗓️ 19 August 2025

⏱️ 49 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On this episode of the Downtime Podcast, we’re joined by Marco and Kornel from the Leogang World Cup team to get a real look at what it takes to put on a race of this scale. We talk about the growing challenge of fitting in ever-bigger pit set-ups, the serious costs involved in hosting a World Cup, and the planning that goes into keeping the track and riders safe. They share how the event impacts the local community, the push for sustainability, and what’s next for mountain biking in Leogang. So sit back, hit play, and enjoy this conversation with Marco Pointner and Kornel Grundner.

You can also watch this episode on YouTube here.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	motivation on our side is really that our heart goes with the sport our goal is to organize the
0:06.8	best events the best mountain back world cup event worldwide is the goal for us yeah we are working with
0:12.3	250 to 350 volunteers a day yeah it's a challenge that the teams and the pits are growing and
0:20.5	growing you're able to just give us a rough
0:22.3	feel of like what the budget needs to look like to put on something like this. Yes, of course.
0:29.9	Hey everyone, I'm Chris Hall and this is the downtime podcast, the podcast for the true fans of
0:34.7	gravity mountain biking, taking you deeper into the sport than
0:37.5	anywhere else. This episode doesn't have any brand support, so more than ever, the support I get
0:42.4	from Patreon is key to helping me keep the show going. So if you're enjoying the podcast, getting
0:46.8	something out of listening and are in a position to help out, then from just £3 a month,
0:50.6	you can join my Patreon over at patreon.com for slash downtime podcast. That's Patreon
0:55.6	spelt P-A-T-R-E-O-N. A massive thank you to all the patrons who came along to our live,
1:01.5	Ask Me Anything with Nico Malali, Ollie Morris and Chris Kilmurie last week. You had some
1:05.8	amazing questions and it was a really fun evening. All right, just a couple more quick things
1:10.3	before we get stuck into this week's episode. Make sure you never miss an episode by following the podcast. Just hit the follow button in your podcast app now or there's dedicated buttons for all the major platforms over at downtimepodcast.com for slash follow. You can also keep up to date with what's going on by following us on Instagram, Facebook or TikTok where we're at downtime podcast. And if you're hungry for more downtime, then you can join the newsletter at downtimepodcast.com for search newsletter. That and all the links I've mentioned will be in the show notes for this episode on the website, downtimepodcast.com. Before we hit this week's episode, I'd love it if you would leave us a review for the show over on Apple Podcasts.
1:44.9	It really does help more people find the podcast, and that growth helps us keep doing this for you every week.
1:50.8	A big thank you to our latest review from MTV, NZPNW, which says it's the best mountain bike podcast he's found and adds so much context to the World Cup coverage.
2:00.0	Thank you for the kind words.
2:02.2	All right, this week we're joined by Marco and Cornell from the Leagang World Cup team to get a real
2:06.5	look at what it takes to put on a race of this scale. We talk about the growing challenge of
2:10.7	fitting in ever bigger pit setups, the serious costs involved in hosting a World Cup and the planning
2:15.7	that goes into keeping the track and riders safe.
	...

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