News

Friday, April 24 - Oliver Koch Hansen, the current Ski GP1 World Champion, will have his work cut out defending his title in 2026, with a growing list of Official Riders confirmed to take on last year’s king of consistency for this season’s honours.

Chief amongst those threatening Koch Hansen for the crown is Quinten Bossche, who delivered stunning performances last season and established himself as the fastest rider of the pack by quite the margin. However, the former world champion was plagued with engine issues that caused forced retirements throughout last season, and those pointless finishes ultimately cancelled out his wins and dragged him down to fourth in the final championship standings. But having won every Moto he completed last season, and with work done to improve the reliability of his bike between seasons, Bossche goes into 2026 as favourite to top the division.

Jeremy Poret is another former world champion who will be pushing to regain the Ski GP1 title, with this season marking a decade since his last title in 2016. He came close to ending his barren run last year with a runner-up finish, and this year hopes to go one better and claim his fifth career championship.

To do so, he will have to face-off with a fellow former world champion that he knows all too well: his brother Mickael Poret. Mickael sabotaged his own chances of regaining the title last season, after an ill-fated back-flip during his celebration of his win in Olbia resulted in a broken ankle and a premature end to a promising season. If the Frenchman can fend off the urge for anymore ankle-breaking podium stunts this year to complete a full season, then he stands in good stead to compete for the championship title he last won in 2023.

Rounding off the list of former world champions confirmed as Official Riders for 2026 is Valentin Dardillat. The Frenchman has one title to his name following his dominant displays in the 2022 season, but has been unable to recapture that pace since. He finished last year in an underwhelming twelfth place in the standings, so returns this year pushing to return back to the top of the division he once reigned over.