Where does Sacha Earnest go from here?

Sacha Earnest’s first year as an elite World Cup racer felt like two. For one thing, a six-week gap between Rounds 6 and 7 created a mini offseason before the final four races, distinctly separating the closing stretch from the gauntlet of heart-of-summer racing. For another, Earnest’s mindset underwent a significant shift during that time off. 

She was admittedly timid to start the season, unsure how her race day routine would change — or should change — as she stepped up from the junior ranks. On one hand, she’d be racing the same monstrous World Cup courses she did as a junior, when she would regularly stand on podiums, including World Cup wins in Val di Sole and Lenzerheide. On the other, her competition would be racing with a speed and intensity unlike any she’d ever experienced. 

Her answer came quickly. She called the World Cup opener in Poland a “slap in the face,” a harsh lesson in what her sport newly demanded of her. She didn’t make finals, finishing 22nd in her first qualifying run and 10th in the second. She found some level footing in her next race, a 10th-place finish in Loudenvielle, but then missed finals two more times before the break due to crashes. 

“Especially at the start, I didn’t really know how fast I should do my qualifying, or how much effort I should put in,” Earnest said. “It was really good with [team manager] Andrew Shandro this year, he helped me a lot through that. He just guided me, and was like, ‘You need to be out of the gate on Day 1, going fast. You need to use the people we have on track.'”

Earnest’s difficult adjustment mirrors that of many preternaturally talented athletes. She was gifted at riding a bike almost from the moment she picked it up, winning three BMX World Championships before she was 10 years old. She transitioned to downhill racing in her teens and took a steady path upward to the highest level of the sport last season … where she received her rude awakening. Unlike in juniors, a “bad day” no longer meant scraping together a Top 5 finish; it meant spending the rest of the weekend watching her competition from the sidelines.

Many of those same preternaturally talented athletes exit the sport after encountering their first serious resistance. And there’s no shame in that; the work required to compete at an elite level — much less podium, much less win — is vast, and often decidedly un-fun. It’s a grind with no guaranteed pay-off. But Earnest, to her credit, accepted the work. She locked in. 

“My whole life, especially with BMX — it’s not like it clicked straight away, but I never really had to build up to winning,” Earnest said. “I don’t know if that sounds rude … but with BMX, it just came naturally. And then same with downhill in New Zealand, it came naturally. So starting this past year was different, having to build myself up into a top-five or podium rider. It was a really new area for me.”

“It was me having to be like, ‘What am I doing? I know I can win. So let’s win.'”

Earnest’s turning point came after a setback that might have derailed other riders. She returned from the long mid-season break feeling rejuvenated after spending time at home. She was fired up for Les Gets, the first World Cup race of the closing stretch, until she crashed on a practice run after posting the fastest time of Q2. She suffered a shoulder injury that knocked her out of World Championships as well, leaving her with just three races to salvage a season that hadn’t lived up to her standards. 

Earnest was buzzing for Lenzerheide. She spent the week riding with some of her closest friends on the World Cup circuit, getting film and pushing her speed within a group of fellow up-and-coming women. She called it her “happiest race week.” Her joy mixed with the pressure of dwindling opportunities and pushed her into a new headspace, one vibrating with anticipation and anxiety. She remembered waiting to go up to the start of her first qualifying run on the verge of tears.

“Just because I was so nervous,” Earnest said. “And [Shandro] was like, ‘There’s no pressure on anything.’ And obviously, that statement can mean something, but to me there is always pressure. There’s always people who are counting on you and looking at your result and being like, ‘Oh, can she back it up?’ Or, ‘Can she do better?'”

Under the weight of her own expectations, and despite not having completed a finals run in more than two months, Earnest had the best weekend of her career: a fifth-place finish in qualifying, a chance to sit out Q2 and breathe, then a fifth-place finish during Saturday’s final.

Her “personal best” didn’t remain a PB for long. Two weeks later she smashed Lake Placid, posting the second-fastest time in qualifying (behind only four-time elite World Champion Vali Höll) before finishing third on the weekend for the first elite podium of her career. A week later, Earnest closed the season with a three-peat of Top 5 finishes, taking fifth in Mont-Sainte-Anne.

Pressure has always been one of Earnest’s biggest motivators. With three races left in the season, she felt “a bit pissed at myself,” and that gave her a necessary spark. But over the course of the 2025 season, she also came to understand that she can’t rely on spunky performances forever. Downhill racing is too fickle, and her competition too fierce, to think she can achieve her biggest ambitions on gumption alone. 

As she attacked the home stretch with a fire in her belly, a process emerged. Earnest sent it harder on her practice laps, riding closer to race speed and utilizing people like Shandro and team support staffer Kobi Sturm as on-course observers to help her dissect tricky sectors and dial in line choices. By Lake Placid, Earnest felt so confident in her preparation that she could feel success coming.

“And that’s what I mean by approaching the race weekend differently,” Earnest said. “Where in a junior event, I would never really do a full lap in timed training, whereas now in elites, I know it’s vital to do that to see where my splits are and where I can improve.” 

For her feat of three-straight Top 5s, Earnest was one of Pinbike’s nominees for Breakout Rider of the Year. The necessary question then: What’s next? The elite downhill field is more competitive every year; resting on your laurels will only shoot you down the qualifying standings. Earnest’s only choice, really, is to carry over that same sense of urgency she felt at the end of 2025 to Round 1 of 2026 in South Korea. 

The time for pep talks is over. Earnest knows she can send it with the best of them, but she won’t be taking for granted the fact that her progress isn’t given. In every sense, she can’t wait to get started.