RED BULL TV

MUST BE NICE

Ft. Loic Bruni

December 4, 2025

Must be Nice -documentary is a ‘90’s-drenched’ chronicle of legacy, pressure, and fate, telling the story of the forgotten battle of Downhill MTB greatness.

In 32 years of the sport, only 12 riders have won the Overall World Cup title. A five-time elite World Champion, French rider Loïc Bruni is already one of the all-time great Downhill mountain bike racers but is yet to reach the status of Nico Vouilloz’s and Aaron Gwin’s record for downhill World Cup overalls. Here is all you need to know:

– Loic Bruni has won the UCI Downhill World Cup Overall title four times in 2019, 2021, 2023, and 2024. But in order to join the ‘Downhill World Cup Hall of Fame’, he has at least one more overall title to claim, to reach the status of Vouilloz (FRA) and Gwin (USA) who are both 5x Overall Downhill World Cup Champions.

– Aaron Gwin, who has taken multiple world titles as the ‘lone American’ in a field mostly dominated by Europeans, sees Bruni’s success as healthy competition. “The thought of Loic breaking our record – as a competitor, I don’t love it to be honest, but at the same time, records are meant to be broken”.

The MTB Downhill scene in the 90’s and early 00’s was a very different era compared to what it is now. High saddles, super narrow handlebars, lycra racing gear and bad brakes. But there was a special element of anticipation in the air, as the riders felt something big was definitely brewing underneath just ‘sending it’. “Those first years, the early days, the excitement when a sport is starting to grow, were amazing”, remembers Vouilloz. “Nothing works in the beginning, everything is off. Naturally, it’s less professional, but that’s what made it cooler, more laid-back.”

– For Loic Bruni, Vouilloz is a Downhill icon and a role model. A pioneer, someone who has pushed the sport while staying true to themselves. Besides titles, that’s what being one of the greats means for Bruni. “More and more, I just want to be remembered as someone authentic, who puts his whole heart into it. And when my heart’s in it, I’m unbeatable”, says Bruni. “Who I am today, is tightly linked to who Nico was as a rider”.

– Fast-forwarding to 25 years later, the sport of Downhill MTB is very much fine-tuned compared with the “old school” methods of the 90s, which often relied more on trial-and-error. The competition gets tougher each year, and the new generation is pushing new boundaries in the sport.

– Bruni’s 2025 UCI Downhill World Cup season ended with a tight end battle with 21-year-old Jackson Goldstone who in return had the season of his life, taking both the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup and World Championships titles, the first Canadian rider to achieve this rare double, at the 2025 season finale in Mont Sainte Anne.

As in any sport, you win some and you lose some. The winning edge comes from using your experience and uphill battles to your advantage. “Experience is my strength at the moment and even more now that I’ve been through so many highs and so many lows lately. It will make me an even stronger character as a racer, and the goal is to use that against the young ones that are coming up”, says Bruni.

– But only winning titles is not what MTB Downhill greatness represents for Bruni. “Winning 5-time overall world cups like Nicolas Vouilloz and Aaron Gwin would be a massive achievement but it’s not my obsession. I don’t have my eyes set only on that, I use it as a motivation, but I also want to take every year the best that I can. I want to keep up with the young ones, and I also want to have fun in the process. I feel like sometimes having your eyes too much on the result is difficult and you can only set yourself for a disappointment if you don’t reach those goals so I’m trying to stay cool about it and everything that comes now feels like a bonus. If reach the same title status of Vouilloz and Gwin, I will be so very proud, but if not – I will still be proud.”